CIHM 
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Series 
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ICMH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographies) 


Csnadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  da  microraproductions  historiquas 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 

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Covers  damaged  / 
Couverture  endommag^ 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  peilicul^e 

Cover  title  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  g^ographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)  / 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
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Bound  with  other  material  / 
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Only  edition  available  / 
Seule  Edition  disponible 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion  along 
interior  margin  /  La  reliure  serrte  peut  causer  de 
I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorsion  le  long  de  la  marge 
int^rieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restorations  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have  been 
omitted  from  filming  /  Use  peut  que  certaines  pages 
blanches  ajout^es  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  lorsque  cela  6tait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  6\6  film^s. 

Additional  comments  / 
Commentaires  suppl^mentaires: 


n 
n 

D 

n 
n 

D 
D 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilteur  exemplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
6X6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli- 
ographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modification  dans  la  m^tho- 
de  normale  de  filmage  sont  indiqu^s  ci-dessous. 

Coloured  pages  /  Pages  de  couleur 

I I   Pages  damaged  /  Pages  endommag6es 


D 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Pages  restaurtes  et/ou  pellicul6es 


r~^  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
I — I   Pages  dteolortes,  tachet^es  ou  piques 

I      I   Pages  detached  /  Pages  d^tach^s 

I  >/[   Showthrough  / Transparence 

I      I   Quality  of  print  varies  / 


D 
0 


D 


Quality  in^gale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material  / 
Comprend  du  materiel  suppl^mentaire 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata  slips, 
tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  totalement  ou 
partiellement  obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une 
pelure,  etc.,  ont  6\6  film^s  k  nouveau  de  fa^on  d 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 

Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
discolourations  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant  ayant  des 
colorations  variables  ou  des  decolorations  sont 
film^s  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la  meilleure  image 
possible. 


n 


Thia  Item  it  f  ilmad  at  tha  raduction  ratio  chaclcad  balow  / 

Ca  doeumant  aat  film^  au  teux  da  rMuction  indiqu4  ct-daaaoua. 


lOx 

14x 

Itx 

22x 

26x 

30x 

1 

J 

1 

12x 

16x 

20x 

24x 

28x 

32x 

Th«  copy  filmad  h«r«  has  t—n  raproduetd  thanks 
to  tha  gsnarosity  of: 

Library  of  the  National 
Archival  of  Canada 


L'axamplaira  filmA  fut  raproduit  grica  k  la 
g*n*rosit*  da: 

La  bibliothiqua  dat  Archival 
nationalai  du  Canada 


Tha  imagas  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
possibia  eonsidaring  tha  condition  and  lagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
**lnfting  contract  spacifieationa. 


Original  eopias  in  printad  papar  eovars  ara  filmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  impraa- 
sion,  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  impraa- 
slon,  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  illuatratad  impraaalon. 


Las  imagas  suivantas  ont  ttt  raproduitas  avsc  la 
plus  grand  soin,  compts  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattat4  da  faxamplaira  filmA,  at  an 
conformiti  avac  las  conditions  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 

Laa  axamplairas  originaux  dont  la  couvarturs  sn 
papiar  ast  imprim4a  sont  filmte  an  commandant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
darniira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'iliustration.  soit  par  la  sacond 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  las  autras  axamplairas 
originaux  sont  filmto  an  commandant  par  la 
pramiira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'imprassion  ou  d'iliustration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darnitra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 


Tha  last  racordad  frama  on  aach  microficha 
ahall  contain  tha  symbol  ^»>  (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED "I.  or  tha  symbol  ▼  (moaning  "END"), 
whichavar  applias. 


Un  das  symbolaa  suh^ants  spparaftra  sur  la 
darniira  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha,  salon  la 
cas:  la  symbols  ^  signifia  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
symbols  ▼  signifia  "FIN  ". 


Mapa.  plataa.  charts,  ate,  may  ba  filmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratios.  Thosa  too  largj  to  ba 
antiraiy  included  in  ona  axpoaura  ara  filmad 
baginning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornar,  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  framas  as 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagrams  illustrata  tha 
mathod: 


Las  cartas,  planchas.  tablaaux,  ate.  pauvant  Atra 
filmAs  i  das  taux  da  reduction  diffArants. 
Lorsqua  la  document  ast  trop  grand  pour  Atra 
raproduit  an  un  saul  clich*.  il  ast  film*  A  partir 
da  f'angia  supAriaur  gaucha,  da  gaucha  i  droits, 
at  da  haut  an  bas.  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'imagas  nAcassaira.  Las  diagrammas  suivants 
iilustrant  la  mAthoda. 


1  2  3 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

MiaocOPY  RISOIUTION  TIST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


.a 

'I 


J 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  EDITION 

• 

VOLUME  28 

THE  CHRONICLES 

OF  AMERICA  SFIIIES 

ALLEN  JOHNSON 

EDITOR 

GERHARD  R.  LOME* 

<!HARLE8  W.  JEFPERYH 

ASSISTANT  EDITORS 


I 


■a 


V 


■''    •     ■''  '"     'iv    ;    In.  I    ,.i  ilii  ■,|..,.', 


WILUAM  tLOYD  GARRiaON 
Mmtograih  br  Gatdnaut.  PhikwWphw. 


THE  ANTI-SLAVERY 
CRUSADE 

A  CHRONICLE  OF  THE 

GATHERING  STORM 

BY  JESSE  MACY 


LVXET 


LVXET 


NEW    HAVEN:    YALE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

TORONTO:    GLASGOW,    BROOK    &    CO. 

LONDON:    HUMPHREY    MILFORD 

OXFORD     UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

1919 


Copyright,  1919,  by  Vale  University  Press 


3 


CONTENTS 


I.    INTRODUCTION 
II.    THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  CRUSADE 

III.  EARLY  CRUSADERS 

IV.  THE  TURNING-POINT 

V.    THE  VINDICATION  OF  LIBERTY 
VI.    THE  SLAVERY  ISSUE  IN  POLITICS 
VIL    THE  PASSING  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY 
Vin.    THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD 

IX.  BOOKS  AS  ANTI-SLAVERY  WEAPONS 

X.  "BLEEDING  KANSAS" 
XI.    CHARLES  SUMNER 

XII.    KANSAS  AND  BUCHANAN 

XIII.  THE  SUPREME  COURT  IN  POLITICS 

XIV.  JOHN  BROWN 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 
INDEX 


Page   1 

U 

n 
s\ 

67 
ti5 
08 
112 
131 
144 
165 
182 
191 
203 
233 
237 


vii 


>r^ 


? 


'I 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON 

Photograph  by  Gutekuoit,  Philadelphia.  Frontispiece 

HENRY  CLAY 

Painting  by  S.  F.  B.  Morse.    In  the  Metropoli- 


tan Museum  of  Art,  New  York. 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 

Bust  by  Horatio  Grecnough.    In  the  collection 
of  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 

FRANKLIN     PIERCE.    Daguerreotype     in     the 
collection  of  L.  C.  Handy,  Washington. 

MILLARD  FILLMORE.    Drawing  from  a  daguer- 
reotype. 

JOHN  BROWN,  ABOUT  1855 
JOHN  BROWN.  1859 

Photographs  in  the  collection  of  the  Kansas 
Sute  Historical  Society,  Topeka.  Kansas. 


Facing  page     36 


78 


"    15i 


204 


a 


I 

J 


THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 


CH^i^ER  I 


INTRODUCTION 

The  Emancipation   Proclamation  of  President 
Lincoln  marks  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  a  long 
chapter  in  human  history.    Among  the  earh'est 
forms  of  private  property  was  the  ownership  of 
slaves.    Slavery  as  an  institution  had  persisted 
throughout  the  ages,  always  under  protest,  always 
provoking   opposition,    insurrection,    social    ard 
civil  war,  and  ever  bearing  within  itself  the  seeds 
of  its  own  destruction.   Among  the  historic  powers 
of  the  world  the  United  States  was  the  last  to  up- 
hold slavery,  and  when,  a  few  years  after  Lincohi's 
proclamation,    Brazil    emancipated    her    slaves, 
property  in  man  as  a  legally  recognized  institution 
came  to  an  end  in  all  civilized  countries. 
Emancipation  in  the  United  States  marked  the 


«  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

conclusion  of  a  century  of  continuous  debate,  in 
which  the  entire  history  of  western  civilization 
was  traversed.  The  literature  of  American  slavery 
is,  indeed,  a  summary  of  the  literature  of  the  world 
on  the  subject.  The  Bible  was  made  a  standard 
text-book  both  for  and  against  slavery.  Hebrew 
and  Christian  experiences  were  exploited  in  the 
interest  of  the  contending  parties  in  this  crucial 
controversy.  Churches  of  the  same  name  and 
order  were  divided  among  themselves  and  became 
half  pro-slavery  and  half  anti-slavery. 

Greek  experience  and  Greek  literature  were 
likewise  drawn  into  the  controversy.  The  Greeks 
themselves  had  set  the  example  of  arguing  both 
for  and  against  slavery.  Their  practice  and  their 
prevailing  teaching,  however,  gave  i^upport  to  this 
institution.  They  clearly  enunciated  the  dov  tiine 
that  there  h  a  natural  division  among  human 
beings;  that  some  are  bom  to  command  and  others 
to  obey;  that  it  is  natural  to  some  men  to  be 
masters  and  to  others  to  be  slaves;  that  ear*"  f 
these  classes  should  fulfill  the  destiny  which  nature 
assigns.  The  Greeks  also  recognized  a  difference 
between  races  and  held  that  some  were  by  nature 
fitted  to  serve  as  slaves,  and  others  to  command 
as  masters.    The  defenders  of  American  slavery 


1 


IN  PRODUCTION  n 

therefore  found  unions  the  writingM  of  the  Greeks 
their  chief  urgumenLs  already  stattd  in  classic 
form. 

Though  the  Romans  added  httle  to  the  theory 
of  the  fundamental  problem  involved,  their  history 
proved  rich  in  practical  experience.     There  were 
times,  in  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire,  when  per- 
sonal slavery  either  did  not  exist  or  was  limited 
and  insignificant  in  extent     But  the  institution 
grew  with  Roman  wars  and  conquests.  In  rural  dis- 
tricts, slave  labor  displaced  free  labor,  and  in  the 
cities  servants  multiplied  with  the  concentration  of 
wealth.    The  size  and  character  of  the  slave  popu- 
lation eventually  became  a  perpetual  menace  to 
the  State.     Insurrections  proved  formidable,  and 
every  slave  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  enemy 
to  the  public.     It  is  generally  conceded  that  the 
extension  of  slavery  was  a  prin  ary  cause  of  the 
decline  and  fall  of  Rome.    In  the  American  con- 
troversy, therefore,  the  lesson  to  he  drawn  from 
Roman  experience  was  utilized  to  support  the 
cause  of  free  labor. 

After  the  Middle  Ages,  in  which  slavery  under 
the  modified  form  of  feudalism  ran  its  course,  there 
was  a  reversion  to  the  ancient  classical  controversy. 
The  issue  became  clearly  defined  in  the  hands  of 


4  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

the  English  and  French  philosophers  of  the  seven 
teenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  In  place  of  th 
time-honored  doctrine  that  the  masses  of  mankin 
are  by  nature  subject  to  the  few  who  are  bom  t 
rule,  the  contradictory  dogma  that  all  men  are  b; 
nature  free  and  equal  was  clearly  enunciated 
According  to  this  later  view,  it  is  of  the  very  natur 
of  spirit,  or  personality,  to  be  free.  All  men  ar 
endowed  with  personal  qualities  of  will  and  choic 
and  a  conscious  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  To  sub 
ject  these  native  faculties  to  an  alien  force  is  t 
make  war  upon  human  nature.  Slavery  and  des 
potism  are,  therefore,  in  their  nature  but  a  specie 
of  warfare.  They  involve  the  forcing  of  men  t 
act  in  violation  of  their  true  selves.  The  olde 
doctrine  makes  government  a  matter  of  force 
The  strong  command  the  weak,  or  the  rich  exer 
cise  lordship  over  the  poor.  The  new  doctrin 
makes  of  government  an  achievement  of  adul 
citizens  who  agree  among  themselves  as  to  what  i 
fit  and  proper  for  the  good  of  the  State  and  wh( 
freely  observe  the  rules  adopted  and  apply  fore 
only  to  the  abnormal,  the  delinquent,  and  thi 
defective. 

Between  the  upholders  of  these  contradictor; 
views  of  human  nature  there  always  has  been  lm 


INTRODUCTION  5 

there  always  must  be  perpetual  warfare.  Their 
difference  is  such  as  to  admit  of  no  compromise; 
no  middle  ground  is  possible.  The  conflict  is 
indeed  irresistible.  The  chief  interest  in  the 
American  crusade  against  slavery  arises  from  its 
relation  to  this  general  world  conflict  between 
liberty  and  despotism. 

The  Athenians  could  be  democrats  and  at  the 
same  time  could  uphold  and  defend  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery.    They  were  committed  to  the  doc- 
trine that  the  masses  of  the  people  were  slaves 
by   nature.     By   definition,    they   made   slaves 
creatures  void  of  will  and  personality,  and  they 
conveniently  ignored   them  in  matters  of  state. 
But  Americans  living  in  States  founded  in  the  era 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  could  not  be 
good  democrats  and  at  the  same  time  uphold  and 
defend  the  institution  of  slavery,  for  the  Declara- 
tion gives  the  lie  to  all  such  assumptions  of  human 
inequality  by  accepting  the  cardinal  axiom  that  all 
men  are  created  equal  and  are  endowed  with  cer- 
tain inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  lib- 
erty, and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.     The  doctrine 
of  equality  had  been  developed  in  Europe  without 
special  reference  to  questions  of  distinct  race  or 
color.    But  the  terms,  which  are  universal  and  as 


H 


If 


6  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

broad  as  humanity  in  their  denotation,  came  to  be 
applied  to  black  men  as  well  as  to  white  men. 
Massachusetts  embodied  in  her  state  constitution 
in  1780  the  words,  "All  men  are  born  free  and 
equal, "  and  the  courts  ruled  that  these  worcs  in 
the  state  constitution  had  the  effect  of  liberating 
the  slaves  and  of  giving  to  them  the  same  rights  as 
other  citizens.  This  is  a  perfectly  logical  applica- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  the  Revolution. 

The  African  slave-trade,  however,  developed  ear- 
lier than  the  doctrine  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. Negro  slavery  had  long  been  an  estab- 
lished inst.'tution  in  all  the  American  colonies. 
Opposition  to  the  slave-trade  and  to  slavery  was 
an  integral  part  of  the  evolution  of  the  doctrinf 
equal  rights.  As  the  colonists  contended  for  their 
own  freedom,  they  became  anti-slavery  in  senti- 
ment. A  standard  complaint  against  British  rule 
was  the  continued  imposition  of  the  slave-trade 
upon  the  colonists  against  their  oft-repeated 
protest. 

In  the  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, there  appeared  the  following  charges 
against  the  King  of  Great  Britain: 

He  has  waged  cruel  war  against  human  nature  itself, 
violating  its  most  sacred  rights  of  life  and  Hberty  in  the 


INTRODUCTION 


persons  of  distant  people  who  never  offended  him,  cap- 
tivating and  carrying  them  into  slavery  in  another 
hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable  death  in  their  trans- 
portation thither.  This  piratical  warfare,  the  oppro- 
brium of  infidel  powers,  is  the  warfare  of  the  Christian 
King  of  Great  Britain.  Determined  to  keep  op>en  a 
market  where  men  should  be  bought  and  sold,  he  has 
prostituted  his  negative  for  suppre  sing  every  legisla- 
tive attempt  to  prohibit  or  to  .v^strain  this  execrable 
commerce. 

Though  this  clause  was  omitted  from  the  docu- 
ment as  finally  adopted,  the  evidence  is  abundant 
that  the  language  expressed  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment of  the  country.  To  the  believer  in  liberty 
and  equality,  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  ar^  in- 
stances of  war  against  human  nature.  No  one 
attempted  to  justify  slavery  or  to  reconcile  it  with 
the  principles  of  free  government.  Slavery  was 
accepted  as  an  inheritance  for  which  others  were  to 
blame.  Colonists  at  first  blamed  Great  Britain; 
later  apologists  for  slavery  blamed  New  England 
for  her  share  in  the  continuance  of  the  slave-trade. 

The  fact  should  be  clearly  comprehended  that 
the  sentiments  which  led  to  the  American  Rev  olu- 
tion,  and  later  to  the  French  Revolution  in  Europe, 
were  as  broad  in  their  application  as  the  human 
race  itself  —  that  there  were  no  limitations  nor 


(I 

i 

r 
I 

il 


1 


8  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

exceptions.  These  new  principles  involved  a  com- 
plete revolution  in  the  previously  recognized 
principles  of  government.  The  French  sought  to 
make  a  master-stroke  at  immediate  achievement 
and  they  incurred  counter-revolutions  and  delays. 
The  Americans  moved  in  a  more  moderate  and 
tentative  manner  towards  the  great  achievement, 
but  with  them  also  a  counter-revolution  finally 
appeared  in  the  rise  of  an  influential  class  who,  by 
openly  defending  slavery,  repudiated  the  principles 
upon  which  the  government  was  founded. 

At  first  the  impression  was  general,  in  the  South 
as  well  as  in  the  North,  that  slavery  was  a  tem- 
porary institution.  The  cause  of  emancipation 
was  already  advocated  by  the  Society  of  "'iends 
and  some  other  sects.  A  majority  of  the  States 
adopted  measures  for  the  gradual  abolition  of 
slavery,  but  in  other  cases  there  proved  to  be  in- 
di'  vial  uarriers  to  emancipation.  Slaves  were 
iound  to  be  profitably  employed  in  clearing  away 
the  forests;  they  were  not  profitably  employed  in 
general  agriculture.  A  marked  exception  was 
found  in  small  districts  in  the  Carolinas  and  Geor- 
gia where  indigo  and  rice  were  produced;  and 
though  cotton  later  became  a  profitable  crop  for 
slave  labor,  it  was  the  producers  of  rice  and  indigo 


INTRODUCTION 


9 


who  furnished  the  original  barrier  to  the  immediate 
extension  of  the  policy  of  emancipation.  Repre- 
sentatives from  their  States  secured  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  clause  into  the  Constitution  which  delayed 
for  twenty  years  the  execution  of  the  will  of  the 
country  against  the  African  slave-trade.  It  is  said 
that  a  slave  imported  from  Africa  paid  for  himself 
in  a  single  year  in  the  production  of  rice.  There 
were  thus  a  few  planters  in  Georgia  and  the  Caro- 
linas  who  had  an  obvious  interest  in  the  prolonga- 
tion of  the  institution  of  slavery  and  who  had 
influence  enough  to  secure  constitutional  recogni- 
tion for  both  slavery  and  the  slave-trade. 

The  principles  involved  were  not  seriously  de- 
bated. In  theory  all  were  abolitionists;  in  practice 
slavery  extended  to  all  the  States.  In  some,  actual 
abolition  was  comparatively  easy;  in  others,  it  was 
diflScult.  By  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  actual  abolition  had  extended 
to  the  line  separating  Pennsylvania  from  Mary- 
land. Of  the  original  thirteen  States  seven  be- 
came free  and  six  remained  slave. 

The  absence  c*  ardent  or  prolonged  debate 
upon  this  isr".e  in  the  early  history  of  the  United 
States  is  easily  accounted  for.  No  principle  of 
importance  was  drawn  into  the  controversy;  few 


I. 


10  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

presumed  to  defend  slavery  as  a  just  or  righteous 
institution.  As  to  conduct,  each  individual,  each 
neighborhood  enjoyed  the  freedom  of  a  large, 
roomy  country.  Even  within  state  lines  there  was 
liberty  enough.  No  keen  sense  of  responsibility 
for  a  uniform  state  policy  existed.  It  was  there- 
fore not  difficult  for  those  who  were  growing 
wealthy  by  the  use  of  imported  negroes  to  maintain 
their  privileges  in  the  State. 

If  the  sense  of  active  responsibility  was  wanting 
within  the  separate  States,  much  more  was  this 
true  of  the  citizens  of  different  States.  Slavery 
was  regarded  as  strictly  a  domestic  institution. 
Families  bought  and  owned  slaves  as  a  matter  of 
individual  preference.  None  of  the  original  colo- 
nies or  States  adopted  slavery  by  law.  The  citizens 
of  the  various  colonies  became  slaveholders  simply 
because  there  was  no  law  against  it.'  Th*^  aboli- 
tion of  slavery  was  at  first  an  individual  matter  or 
a  church  or  a  state  policy.  When  the  Constitution 
was  formulated,  the  separate  States  had  been 
accustomed  to  regard  themselves  as  possessed 
of  sovereign  powers;  hence  there  was  no  occasion 
for  the  citizens  of  one  State  to  have  a  sense  of 

» In  the  case  of  Georgia  there  was  a  prohibitory  law,  which 
was  disregarded. 


INTRODUCTION  11 

responsibility  on  account  of  the  domestic  institu- 
tions of  other  States.  The  consciousness  of  national 
responsibility  was  of  slow  growth,  and  the  condi- 
tions did  not  then  exist  which  favored  a  general 
crusade  against  slavery  or  a  prolonged  acrimonious 
debate  on  the  subject,  such  as  arose  forty  years 
later. 

In  many  of  the  States,  however,  there  were  or- 
ganized abolition  societies,  whose  object  was  to 
promote  the  cause  of  emancipation  already  in 
progress  and  to  protect  the  rights  of  free  negroes. 
The  Friends,  or  Quakers,  were  especially  active  in 
the  promotion  of  a  propaganda  for  universal 
emancipation.  A  petition  which  was  presented 
to  the  first  Congress  in  February,  1790,  with  the 
signature  of  Benjamin  Franklin  as  President  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society,  contained  this 
concluding  paragraph: 


ifi 


In 


!     1 


'  1 


* 


k 


From  a  persuasion  that  equal  liberty  was  originally, 
and  is  still,  the  birthright  of  all  men,  and  influenced  by 
the  strong  ties  of  humanity  and  the  principles  of  their 
institutions,  your  memorialists  conceive  themselves 
bound  to  use  all  justifiable  endeavors  to  loosen  the  bonds 
of  slavery,  and  to  promote  the  general  enjoyment  of  the 
blessings  of  freedom.  Under  these  impressions  they 
earnestly  entreat  your  attention  to  the  subject  of 
slavery;  tha.  you  will  be  pleased  to  countenance  the 


P 


IS 


THE  ANTI-SLA\TRY  CRUSADE 


restoration  to  liberty  of  those  unhappy  men,  who,  alone, 
in  this  land  of  freemen,  are  groaning  in  servile  subjec- 
tion; that  you  will  devise  means  for  re^noving  this  in- 
consistency of  character  from  the  .\jtei'ican  people;  that 
you  will  promote  mercy  and  justice  towards  this  dis- 
tressed race;  and  that  you  will  step  to  the  very  verge  of 
the  power  vested  in  you  for  discouraging  ever"  es 
of  traffic  in  the  persons  of  our  f ellowmen. ' 


f  1 


The  memorialists  were  treated  with  profound 
respect.  Cordial  support  and  encouragement  came 
from  representatives  from  Virginia  and  other  slave 
States.  Opposition  was  expressed  by  members 
from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  These  for  the 
most  part  relied  upon  their  constitutional  guaran- 
ties. But  for  these  guaranties,  said  Smith,  of  South 
Carolina,  his  State  would  not  have  entered  the 
Union.  In  the  extreme  utterances  in  opposition 
to  the  petition  there  is  a  suggestion  of  the  revolu- 
tion which  was  to  occur  forty  years  later 

Active  abolitionists  who  gave  time  and  money 
to  the  promotion  of  the  cause  were  always  few  in 
numbers.  Previous  to  1830  abolition  societies  re- 
sembled associations  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty 
to  animals  —  in  fact,  in  one  instance  at  least  this 
was  made  one  of  the  professed  objects.     These 


<  William  Goodell.  Slauery  and  Anti-Slavery,  p.  99. 


t    ^ 


INTRODUCTION  13 

societies  labored  to  induce  men  to  act  in  harmony 
with  generally  acknowledged  obligations,  and  they 
had  no  occasion  for  violence  or  persecution.  Abo- 
litionists were  distinguished  for  their  benevolence 
ond  their  unselfish  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the 
needy  and  the  unfortunate.  It  was  only  when  the 
ruling  classes  resorted  to  mob  violence  and  began 
to  defend  slavery  as  a  divinely  ordained  institution 
that  there  was  a  radical  change  in  the  spirit  of  the 
controversy.  The  irrepressible  conflict  between 
liberty  and  despotism  which  has  persisted  in  all 
ages  became  manifest  when  slave-masters  substi- 
tuted the  Greek  doctrine  of  inequality  and  slavery 
for  the  previously  accepted  Christian  doctrine  of 
equality  and  universal  brotherhood. 


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CHAPTER  II 


'I 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OP  THE  CRUSADE 

It  was  a  mere  accident  that  the  line  drawn  by 
Mason  and  Dixon  between  Pennsylvania  and  Maiy- 
and  became  known  in  later  years  as  the  dividing 
line  between  slavery  and  freedom.    The  sh  States 
south  of  that  line  ultimate'y  neglected  or  refused 
to  abolish  slavery,  while  the  seven  Northern  States 
became  free.   Vermont  became  a  State  in  1791  and 
Kentucky  in  1792.    The  third  State  to  be  added 
to  the  original  thirteen  was  Tennessee  in  1796    At 
that  time,  counting  the  States  as  they  were  finally 
classified,  eight  were  destined  to  be  slave  and  eight 
free.    Ohio  entered  the  Union  as  a  State  in  1802 
thus  giving  to  the  free  States  a  majority  of  one! 
Ibe  balance,  however,  was  restored  in  1812  by  the 
admission  of  Louisiana  as  a  slave  State.    The  ad 
mission  of  Indiana  in  1810  on  the  one  side  and  of 
Mississippi  in  1817  on  the  other  still  maintained 
the  balance:  ten  free  States  stood  against  ten  slave 

14 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  CRUSADE    13 

States.  During  the  next  two  years  Illinois  and 
Alabama  were  admitted,  making  twenty-two 
States  in  all,  still  evenly  divided. 

The  ordinance  for  the  government  of  the  terri- 
tory north  of  the  Ohio  River,  passed  in  1787  and 
ret^nacted  by  Congre.««j'  after  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  proved  to  be  an  act  of  great  signifi- 
cance in  its  relation  to  the  limitation  of  slavei  . 
By  th?s  ordinance  slavery  was  forever  prohibited 
in  the  Northwest  Territory.  In  the  territory  south 
of  the  Ohio  River  slavery  became  permanently  es- 
tablished. The  river,  therefore,  became  an  exten- 
sion of  the  original  Mason  and  Di\on's  Line  with 
the  new  meaning  attached:  it  became  a  division 
between  free  and  slave  territory. 

It  was  apparently  at  first  a  mere  matter  of 
chance  that  a  balance  was  struck  between  the  two 
classes  of  States.  While  Virginia  remained  a  slave 
State,  it  was  natural  that  slavery  should  extend 
into  Kentucky,  which  hac  been  a  part  of  Virginia. 
Likewise  Tennessee,  being  a  part  of  North  Caro- 
lina, became  slave  territory.  When  these  two 
Territories  became  slave  States,  the  equal  division 
began.  There  was  yet  an  abundance  of  territory 
both  north  and  south  to  be  taken  into  the  Union 
and,  without  any  special  plan  or  agitation,  Strtes 


'i  r 


^f  I 


16  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
were  admitte<I  in  puirs,  one  trw  und  the  other  slave. 
In  the  meantime  there  was  distinctly  deveIo|M«d 
the  idea  of  the  posstible  or  prohuhle  permanence  of 
slavery  in  le  South  and  of  u  rivalry  or  even  a 
futur**        .net  between  the  two  sections. 

When  in  1819  Missouri  applied  for  admission 
to  the  Union  with  a  state  constitution  permitting 
slavery,  there  was  a  prolonged  debate  over  the 
whole  question,  not  only  in  Congress  but  through- 
out the  entire  country.  North  and  South  were 
distinctly  pitted  against  each  other  with  rival 
systems  of  labor.  The  following  year  Congress 
passed  a  law  providing  for  the  admission  of  Mis- 
souri, but,  to  restore  the  balance,  Maine  w  as  sepa- 
rated from  Massachusetts  and  was  admitted  to 
the  Union  as  a  State.  It  was  further  enacted  that 
slavery  should  be  forever  prohibited  from  all  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States  north  of  the  parallel  36" 
80',  that  is,  north  of  the  southern  boundary  of 
Missouri.  It  is  this  part  of  the  act  which  is  known 
as  the  Missouri  Compromise.  It  was  mc  ,  ted  as 
a  permanent  limitation  of  the  institution  of  slavery. 
B>  this  act  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line  was  extended 
through  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  As  the  western 
boundary  was  then  defined,  slavery  could  still  be 
extended  into  Arkansas  and  into  a  part  of  what  is 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  CRUSADE  17 

now  Oklahoma,  while  a  great  empire  to  the  north* 
west  was  reserved  for  the  formation  of  free  States. 
Arkansas  bi>came  a  slave  State  in  18:)6  and  Michi- 
gan was  admitted  as  a  free  State  in  the  following 
year. 

With  the  admission  of  Arkansas  and  Michigan, 
thirteen  slave  States  were  balanced  by  a  like  num- 
ber  of  free  Stu  ..  The  South  still  had  Florida, 
which  would  in  time  become  a  slave  State.  Against 
this  single  Territory  there  was  an  immense  region 
to  the  northwest,  equal  in  area  to  all  the  slave 
States  combined,  which,  according  to  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787  and  the  Missouri  Compromise,  had 
been  consecrated  to  freedom.  Foreseeing  this 
condition,  a  few  Southern  planters  began  a  move- 
ment for  the  extension  of  territory  to  the  south  and 
west  immediately  after  the  adoption  of  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise.  When  Arkansas  was  admitted 
in  1836,  there  was  a  prospect  of  the  immediate 
annexation  of  Texas  as  a  slave  State.  This  did  not 
take  place  until  nine  yca»s  later,  but  the  propa- 
ganda, the  object  of  which  was  the  extension  of 
slave  territory,  could  not  be  maintained  by  those 
who  contended  that  slavery  was  a  curse  to  the 
country.  Virginia,  therefore,  and  oth(T  border 
slave  States,  as  they  became  committed  to  the 


J 


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18  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

policy  of  expansion,  ceased  to  tolerate  official 
public  utterances  against  slavery. 

Three  more  or  less  clearly  defined  sections  appear 
in  the  later  development  of  the  crusade.    These  are 
the  New  England  States,  the  Middle  States,  and 
the  States  south  of  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee. 
In  New  England,  few  negroes  were  ever  held  as 
slaves,  and  the  institution  disappeared  during  the 
first  years  of  the  Republic.    The  inhabitants  had 
little  experience  arising  from  actual  contact  with 
slavery.     When  slavery  disappeared  from  New 
England  and  before  there  had  been  developed  in 
the  country  at  large  a  national  feeling  of  respon- 
sibility for  its  continued  existence,  interest  in  the 
subject  declined.    For  twenty  years  previous  to  the 
founding  of  Garrison's  Liberator  in  1831,  organized 
abolition  movements  had  been  almost  unknown  in 
New  England.    In  various  ways  the  people  were 
isolated,  separated  from   contact   with  slavery. 
Their  knowledge  of  this  subject  of  discussion  was 
academic,  theoretical,  acquired  at  second-hand. 

In  New  York  and  New  Jersey  slaves  were  much 
more  numerous  than  in  New  England.  There  were 
still  slaves  in  considerable  numbers  until  about 
1825.  The  people  had  a  knowledge  of  the  institu- 
tion from  experience  and  observation,  and  there 


% 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  CRUSADE  19 

was  no  break  in  the  continuity  of  their  organized 
abolition  societies.  Chief  among  the  objects  of 
these  societies  was  the  effort  to  prevent  kidnapping 
and  to  guard  the  rights  of  free  negroes.  For  both 
of  these  purposes  there  was  a  continuous  call  for 
activity.  Pennsylvania  also  had  freedmen  of  her 
own  whose  rights  called  for  fjvat  ciiaaship,  as  well  as 
many  freedmen  from  fartl  >ir  t'outh  who  aad  come 
into  the  State. 

The  movement  of  protest  and  protection  did  not 
stop  at  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,  but  extended  far 
into  the  South.  In  both  North  Carolina  and  Ten- 
nessee an  active  protest  against  slavery  was  at  all 
times  maintained.  In  this  great  middle  section  of 
the  country,  between  New  England  and  South 
Carolina,  there  was  no  cessation  in  the  conflict 
between  free  and  slave  labor.  Some  of  these  States 
became  free  while  others  remained  slave;  but  be- 
tween the  people  of  the  two  sections  there  was  con- 
tinuous communication.  Slaveholders  came  into 
free  States  to  liberate  their  slaves.  Non-slave- 
holders came  to  get  rid  of  the  competition  of  slave 
labor,  and  free  negroes  came  to  avoid  reenslave- 
ment.  Slaves  fled  thither  on  their  way  to  liberty. 
It  was  not  a  matter  of  choice;  it  was  an  unavoid- 
able condition  which  compelled  the  people  of  the 


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f  ■'«  •. 


|l 


20         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

border  States  to  give  continuous  attention  to  the 
institution  of  slavery. 

The  modern   anti-slavery   movement  had   its 
origin  in  this  great  middle  section,  and  from  the 
same  source  it  derived  its  chief  support.    The  great 
body  of  active  abolitionists  were  from  the  slave 
States  or  else  derived  their  inspiration  from  per- 
sonal contact  with  slavery.     As  compared  with 
New  England  abolitionists,  the  middle-state  folk 
were  less  extreme  in  their  views.     They  had  a 
keener  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  involved  in 
emancipation.    They  were  more  tolerant  towards 
the  idea  of  letting  the  country  at  large  share  the 
burdens  involved  in  the  liberation  of  the  slaves. 
Border-state  abolitionists  naturally  favored  the 
policy  of  gradual  emancipation  which  had  been 
followed  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania.   Abolitionists  who  continued  to  reside  in 
the  slave  States  were  forced  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  emancipation  involved  serious  questions  of 
race  adjustment.    From  the  border  States  came 
the  colonization  society,  a  characteristic  institu- 
tion, as  well  as  compromise  of  every  variety. 

The  southernmost  section,  including  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  and  the  Gulf  States,  was  even  more 
sharply  defined  in  the  attitude  it  assumed  toward 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  CRUSADE  21 

the  anti-slavery  movement.  At  no  time  did  the 
cause  of  emancipation  become  formidable  in  this 
section.  In  all  these  States  there  was,  of  course,  a 
large  class  of  non-slaveholding  whites,  who  were 
opposed  to  slaver;,  and  who  realized  that  they 
were  victims  of  an  injurious  system;  but  they  had 
no  eflFective  organ  for  expression.  The  ruling  mi- 
nority gained  an  early  and  an  easy  victory  and 
to  the  end  held  a  firm  hand.  To  the  inhabitants  of 
this  section  it  appeared  to  be  a  self-evident  truth 
that  the  white  race  was  born  to  rule  and  the  black 
race  was  born  to  serve.  Where  negroes  outnum- 
bered the  whites  fourfold,  the  mere  suggestion  of 
emancipation  raised  a  race  question  which  seemed 
appalling  in  its  proportions.  Either  in  the  Union 
or  out  of  the  Union,  the  rulers  were  determined 
to  perpetuate  slavery. 

Slavery  as  an  economic  institution  became  de- 
pendent upon  a  few  semitropical  plantation  crops. 
When  the  Constitution  was  framed,  rice  and  indigo, 
produced  in  South  C,  and  Georgia,  were  the 

two  most  important.  .^o  declined  in  relative 

importance,  and  the  production  of  sugar  was  de- 
veloped, c  pecially  after  the  annexation  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase.  But  by  far  the  most  impor- 
tant crop  for  its  eflFects  upon  slavery  and  upon  the 


n 


«         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

entire  country  was  cotton.  This  single  )rroduct 
finally  absorbed  the  labor  of  half  the  slaves  of  the 
entire  country.  Mr.  Rhodes  is  not  at  all  unreason- 
able in  his  surmise  that,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
unforeseen  development  of  the  cotton  industry,  the 
expectation  of  the  founders  of  the  Republic  that 
slavery  would  soon  disappear  would  actually  have 
been  realized. 

It  was  more  difficult  to  carry  out  a  policy  of 
emancipation  when  slaves  were  quoted  in  the 
market  at  a  thousand  dollars  than  when  the 
price  was  a  few  hundred  dollars.  All  slave-own- 
ers felt  richer;  emancipation  appeared  to  involve 
a  greater  sacrifice.  Thus  the  cotton  industry  went 
far  towards  accounting  for  the  changed  attitude 
of  the  entire  country  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
The  North  as  well  as  the  South  became  finan- 
cially interested. 

It  was  not  generally  perceived  before  it  actually 
happened  that  the  border  States  would  take  the 
place  of  Africa  in  furnishing  the  required  supply  of 
laborers  for  Southern  plantations.  The  interstate 
slave-trade  gave  to  the  system  a  solidarity  of  in- 
terest which  was  new.  All  slave-owners  became 
partakers  of  a  common  responsibility  for  the  sys- 
tem as  a  whole.   It  was  the  newly  developed  trade 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  CRUSADE  23 

quite  as  much  as  the  system  of  slavery  itself  which 
furnished  the  ground  for  the  later  anti-slavery 
appeal.  The  consciousness  of  a  common  guilt  for 
the  sin  of  slavery  grew  with  the  increase  of  actual 
interstate  relations. 

The  abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade  was  an 
act  of  the  general  Government.  Congress  passed 
the  prohibitory  statute  in  1807,  to  go  into  eflFect 
in  January,  1808.  At  no  time,  however,  was  the 
prohibition  entirely  effective,  and  a  limited  ille- 
gal trade  continued  until  slavery  was  eventually 
abolished.  This  ineflSciency  of  restraint  furnished 
another  point  of  attack  for  the  abolitionists. 
Through  efforts  to  suppress  the  African  slave-trade, 
the  entire  country  became  conscious  of  a  conmion 
responsibility.  Before  the  Revolutionary  War, 
Great  Britain  had  been  censured  for  forcing  cheap 
slaves  from  Africa  upon  her  unwilling  colonies. 
After  the  Revolution,  New  England  was  blamed 
for  the  activity  of  her  citizens  in  this  nefarious 
trade  both  before  and  after  it  was  made  illegal. 
All  of  this  tended  to  increase  the  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility in  every  section  of  the  country. 
Congress  had  made  the  foreign  slave-trade  il- 
legal; and  citizens  in  all  sections  gradually  be- 
came aware  of  the  possibility  that  Congress  might 


«4         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

likewise  restrict  or  forbid  interstate  commerce  in 
slaves. 

The  West  Indies  and  Mexico  were  also  closely 
associated  with  the  United  States  in  the  matter  of 
slavery.     When  Jamestown  was  founded,  negro 
slavery  was  already  an  old  institution  in  the  islands 
of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  thence  came  the  first 
slaves  to  Virginia.    The  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
island  of  Hayti,  o-  San  Domingo,  was  accomplished 
during  the  French  Revolution  and  the  Napoleonic 
Wars.    As  incidental  to  the  process  of  emancipa- 
tion, the  Caucasian  inhabitants  were  massacred  or 
banished,  and  a  republican  government  was  estab- 
lished, composed  exclusively  of  negroes  and  mulat- 
toes.    From  the  date  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
to  that  of  the  Mexican  War,  this  island  was  united 
under  a  single  republic,  though  it  was  afterwards 
divided  into  the  two  republics  of  Hayti  and  San 
Domingo. 

The  "horrors  of  San  Domingo"  were  never  ab- 
sent from  the  minds  of  those  in  the  United  States 
who  lived  in  communities  composed  chiefly  of 
slaves.  What  had  happened  on  the  island  was  ac- 
cepted by  Southern  planters  as  proof  that  the  two 
races  could  live  together  in  peace  only  under  the  re- 
lation of  master  and  slave,  and  that  emancipation 


/  S 


THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  CRUSADE  25 

boded  the  extermination  of  one  race  or  the 
other.  Abolitionists,  however,  interpreted  the 
facts  differently:  they  emphasized  the  tyranny  of 
the  white  rulers  as  a  primary  cause  of  the  massacres; 
they  endowed  some  of  the  negro  leaders  with  the 
highest  qualities  of  statesmanship  and  self-sacri- 
ficing generosity;  and  Wendell  Phillips,  in  an  im- 
passioned address  which  he  delivered  in  1861, 
placed  on  the  honor  roll  above  the  chief  worthies  of 
history  —  including  CiOmwell  and  Washington  — 
Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  the  liberator  of  Hayti, 
whom  France  had  betrayed  and  murdered. 

Abolitionists  found  support  for  their  position  in 
the  contention  that  other  communities  had  abol- 
ished slavery  without  such  accompanying  horrors 
as  occurred  in  Hayti  and  without  serious  race  con- 
flict. Slavery  had  run  its  course  in  Spanish  Amer- 
ica, and  emancipation  accompanied  or  followed  the 
formation  of  independent  republics.  In  1833  all 
slaves  in  the  British  Empire  were  liberated,  includ- 
ing those  in  the  important  island  of  Jamaica.  So 
it  happeni'd  that,  just  at  the  time  when  Southern 
leaders  were  making  up  their  minds  to  defend  their 
peculiar  institution  at  all  hazards,  they  were  beset 
on  every  side  by  the  spirit  of  emancipation.  Abo- 
litionists, on  the  other  hand,  were  fully  convinced 


ii 


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*"         THE  ANTI-SUVEKV  CRUSADE 
that  the  attainment  of  some  form  of  emancipaUon 
>n  the  United  State,  wa,  eerUin.   nd  that^^tter 
peaceably  or  through  viol™™.  «.-    i 
ultimately  be  liberal  •         "^""^  '""'" 


V 


I' 


CHAPTER  III 


EARLY   CRUSADERS 


At  the  time  when  the  new  cotton  industry  was 
enhancing  the  value  of  slii  •'  labor,  there  arose  from 
the  ranks  of  the  people  use  who  freely  conse- 
crated their  all  to  the  freeing  of  the  slave.  Among 
these,  Benjamin  Lundy,  a  New  Jersey  Quaker, 
holds  a  significant  place. 

The  'le  Society  of  Friends  fills  a  large  place 
in  the  anti-slavery  movement,  its  contribution  to 
the  growth  of  the  conception  of  equality  is  even 
more  significant.  This  impetus  to  the  idea  arises 
from  a  fundamental  Quaker  doctrine,  announced 
at  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  to  the 
effect  that  God  reveals  Himself  to  mankind,  not 
through  any  priesthood  or  specially  chosen  agents; 
not  through  any  ordinance,  form,  or  ceremony;  not 
through  any  church  or  in-  *  itution ;  not  through  any 
book  or  written  record  of  any  sort;  but  directly, 
through  His  Spirit,  to  each  person.    This  direct 

87 


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I 


«8         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

enlightening  agency  they  .Jeenuni  coextensive  with 
humanity;  no  race  and  no  indiv.:  lua'  is  left  without 
the  ever-pre«ent  illuminating  Spirit.    If  men  of  old 
spoke  as  they  were  move<l  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  what 
they  spoke  or  wrote  can  furnish  no  reliable  guid- 
ance to  the  men  of  a  later  generation,  except  as 
their  mmds  also  are  enlightened  by  the  same  Spirit 
in  the  same  way.     "The  letter  killeth;  it  is  the 
opint  that  giveth  life." 

This  doctrine  in  its  purity  and  simplicity  places 
all  men  and  all  races  on  an  equality;  all  are  alike 
Ignorant  and  imperfect;  all  are  alike  in  their  need 
of  the  more  perfect  revelation  yet  to  be  made 
Master  and  slave  are  equal  before  God;  there  can 
be  no  such  relation,  therefore,  except  by  doing  vio- 
lence to  a  personality,  to  a  spiritual  being.    In  har- 
mony  with  this  fundamental  principle,  the  Society 
of  Fnends  early  rid  itself  of  all  connection  with 
slaver.       The  Friends'  Meeting  became  a  refMge 
for  ih..c  who  were  moved  by  the  Spirit  to  testify 
agamst  slavery. 

Born  in  1789  in  a  State  which  was  then  under- 
gomg  the  process  of  emancipating  its  slaves,  Ben- 
jamin Lundy  moved  at  the  age  of  nineteen  to 
WTieeling,  West  Virginia,  which  had  already  be- 
come the  center  of  an   active  domestic  slave- 


!( 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  29 

trade.  The  pious  young  Qi  tker,  now  appren> 
ticed  to  a  saddler,  was  brought  into  personal 
contact  with  this  traffic  in  human  ^  sh.  He 
felt  keenly  the  national  disgrace  of  the  iniquity. 
So  deep  did  the  iron  enter  into  his  soul  that 
never  again  did  he  find  peace  of  mind  except  in 
efforts  to  relieve  the  oppressed.  Like  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  others,  Lundy  was  led  on  to 
active  opposition  to  the  trade  by  an  actual  knowl- 
edge of  the  inhumanity  of  the  business  as  prose- 
cuted before  his  eyes  and  by  his  sympathy  for 
human  suffering. 

His  apprenticeship  ended,  Lundy  was  soon  es- 
tablished in  a  prosperous  business  in  an  Ohio 
village  not  far  from  Wheeling.  Though  he  now 
lived  in  a  free  State,  the  call  of  the  oppressed  was 
ever  in  his  ears  and  he  could  not  rest.  He  drew 
together  a  few  of  his  neighbors,  and  together  they 
organized  the  Union  Humane  Society,  whose  ob- 
ject \^as  the  relief  of  those  held  in  bondage.  In  a 
few  months  the  society  numbered  several  hundred 
members,  and  Lundy  issued  an  address  to  the  phi- 
lanthropists of  the  whole  country,  urging  them  to 
unite  in  like  manner  with  uniform  constitutions, 
and  suggesting  that  societies  so  formed  adopt  a 
policy  of  correspondence  and  cooperation.     At 


'At'  i 


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I 


•0         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

about  th.  Mumc.  time.  Lundy  bogan  to  publish  anti- 
slavery  articles  in  the  Mount  Pleasant  Philanthro- 
ptst  and  other  papers. 

In  1819  he  went  on  a  business  errand  to  St 
Louis.  Missouri,  where  he  found  himself  in  the 
midst  of  an  agitation  over  the  question  of  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery  in  the  States.    With  great  zest 
he  threw  himself  into  the  discussion,  making  use  of 
the  newspapers  in  Missouri  and  Illinois.    Having 
lost  his  property,  he  returned  poverty-stricken  to 
Ohio,  where  he   founded   in  January.  1821    the 
Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation.    A  few  months 
later  he  transferred  his  paper  to  the  more  congenial 
atmosphere  of  Joneshorough.  Tennessee,  but  in 
1824  he  went  to  Baltimore.  Maryland.     In  the 
meantime.  Lundy  had  become  much  occupied  in 
traveling,  lecturing,  and  organizing  societies  for 
the  promotion  of  the  cause  of  abolition.    He  states 
that  during  the  ten  years  previous  to  1830  he  had 
traveled  upwards  of  twenty-five  thousand  miles, 
five  thousand  of  which  were  on  foot.     He  now 
became  interested  in  plans  for  colonizing  negroes 
m  other  countries  as  an  aid  to  emancipation, 
though  he  himself  had  no  confidence  in  th«  colo- 
nization society  and  its  scheme  of  deportation  to 
Africa.    After  leading  a  few  negroes  to  Hayti  in 


K 


h 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  81 

1829,  he  visitetl  Cunadu,  Toxus,  und  Mexico  ^vith 
u  similar  plan  in  view. 

During  a  trip  through  the  Middle  States  and 
New  England  in  18^28,  Lundy  met  William  Llovd 
Garrison,  und  the  following  year  he  walked  all  the 
way  from  FJaltimore  to  Bennington,  Vermont,  for 
the  express  pur|)ose  of  securing  the  assistance  of 
the  youthful  reformer  us  coeditor  of  his  paper. 
Garrison  hud  previously  fuvored  colonizution,  but 
within  the  few  weeks  which  elupsed  before  he 
joined  Lundy,  he  repudiated  ull  forms  of  colonizu- 
tion und  udvc-uted  immediate  und  unconditional 
emancipation.  He  ut  once  told  Lundy  of  his  change 
of  views.  "Well,"  .said  Lundy,  "thee  may  put 
thy  initials  to  thy  articles,  and  I  will  put  my  wit- 
ness to  mine,  and  each  will  bear  his  own  burden." 
The  two  editors  were,  however,  in  complete  accord 
in  their  opposition  to  the  slave-trade.  Lundy  had 
suffered  u  dangerous  assault  at  the  hands  of  a  Bal- 
timore slave-trader  before  he  was  joined  by  Gar- 
rison. During  the  year  1830,  Garrison  was  con- 
victed of  libel  and  thrown  into  prison  on  account 
of  his  scathing  denunciation  of  Francis  Todd  of 
Massachusetts,  the  owner  of  a  vessel  engaged  in 
the  slpve-trade. 
These  events  brought  to  a  crisis  the  publication 


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'I  I 


32  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

of  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation.    The  edi- 
tors now  parted  company.    Again  Lundy  moved 
the  office  of  the  paper,  this  time  to  Washington. 
1^.  C.   but  ,t  soon  became  a  peripatetic  monthly, 
printed  wherever  the  editor  chanced  to  be.     In 
1836  Lundy  began  the  issue  of  an  anti-slavery 
paper  m  Philadelphia,  called  the  National  Inquirer 
and  with  this  was  merged  the  Genius  of  Universal 
EmancvpaUon.    He  was  preparing  to  resume  the 
issue  of  h,s  original  paper  under  the  old  title,  in  La 
Salle  County.  Illinois,  when  he  was  overtaken  by 
death  on  August  22,  1839. 

Here  was  a  man  without  education,  without 
wealth,  of  a  slight  frame,  not  at  all  robust,  who  had 
undertaken,  singlehanded  and  without  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  of  his  ultimate  success,  to  abolish  Ameri- 
can  slavery.    He  began  the  organization  of  societies 
which  were  to  displace  the  anti-slavery  societies 
of  the  previous  century.     He  established  the  first 
paper  devoted  exclusively  to  the  cause  of  emanci- 
pation.  He  foresaw  that  the  question  of  emancipa- 
tion must  be  carried  into  politics  and  that  it  must 
become  an  object  of  concern  to  the  general  Gov- 
ernment as  well  as  to  the  separate  States.    In  the 
early  part  of  his  career  he  found  the  most  congen- 
ial association  and  the  larger  measure  of  effective 


I'} 


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EARLY  CRUSADERS 


S3 


support  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,  and  in 
this  section  were  the  greater  number  of  the  aboli- 
tion societies  which  he  organized.  During  the  later 
years  of  his  life,  as  it  was  becoming  increasingly 
difficult  in  the  South  to  maintain  a  public  anti- 
slavery  propaganda,  he  transferred  his  chief  activi- 
ties to  the  North.  Lundy  serves  as  a  connecting 
link  between  the  earlier  and  the  later  anti-slavery 
movements.  Eleven  years  rf  his  early  life  belong 
to  the  century  of  the  Re  .'ation.  Garrison  re- 
corded his  indebtedness  to  Lundy  in  the  words: 
"If  I  have  in  any  way,  however  humble,  done 
anything  towards  calling  attention  to  slavery,  or 
bringing  out  the  glorious  prospect  of  a  complete 
jubilee  in  our  country  at  no  distant  day,  I  feel  that' 
I  owe  everything  in  this  matter,  instrumentally 
under  God,  to  Benjamin  Lundy." 

DiflFerent  in  type,  yet  even  more  significant  on 
account  of  its  peculiar  relations  to  the  cause  of 
abolition,  was  the  life  of  James  Gillespie  Bimey, 
who  was  born  in  a  wealthy  slaveholding  family  at 
Dansville,  Kentucky,  in  the  year  1792.  The  Bir- 
neys  were  anti-slavery  planters  of  the  type  of 
Washington  and  Jefferson.  The  father  had  labored 
to  make  Kentucky  a  free  State  at  the  time  of  its 
admission  to  the  Union.    His  son  was  educated 


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11 


34  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

first  at  Princeton,  where  he  graduated  in  1810.  and 
then  in  the  office  of  a  distinguished  lawyer  in  Phila- 
delphia.  He  began  the  practice  of  law  at  his  home 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  His  home  training  and 
his  residence  in  States  which  were  then  in  the  pro- 
cess of  gradual  emancipation  served  to  confirm  him 
m  the  traditional  conviction  of  his  family.  While 
Benjamin  Lundy,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  was 

^^f.^^!^u-''^'^*"^''°^  anti-slavezy  societies  north 
of  the  Ohio  River,  Birney  at  the  age  of  twenty-four 
was  influential  as  a  member  of  the  Kentucky  Legis- 
lature m  the  prevention  of  the  passing  of  a  joint 
resolution  calling  upon  Ohio  and  Indiana  to  make 
W  providing  for  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves. 
He  was  also  conspicuous  in  his  eflForts  to  secure 
provisions  for  gradual  emancipation.    Two  years 
later  he  became  a  planter  near  Hunt     Me   Ala- 
bama.   Though  not  a  member  of  the        Ltitu- 
tional  Convention  preparatory  to  the   u?    ission 
of  this  Territory  into  the  Union,  Birney  ..ed  his 
influence  to  secure  provisions  in  the  constitution 
favorable  to  gradual  emancipation.    As  a  member 
of  the  first  Legislature,  in  1819,  he  was  the  author 
of  a  law  providing  a  fair  trial  by  jury  for  slaves 
mdicted  for  crimes  above  petty  larceny,  and  in  1826 
he  became  a  regular  contributor  to  the  American 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  85 

Colonization  Society,  believing  it  to  be  an  aid  to 
emancipation.  The  following  year  he  was  able  to 
induce  the  Legislature,  although  he  was  not  then 
a  member  of  it,  to  pass  an  act  forbidding  the  im- 
portation of  slaves  into  Alabama  either  for  sale  or 
for  hire.  This  was  regarded  as  a  step  preliminary 
to  emancipation. 

The  cause  of  education  in  Alabama  had  in  Bir- 
ney  a  trusted  leader.  During  the  year  1830  Le 
spent  several  months  in  the  North  Atlantic  States 
for  the  selection  of  a  president  and  four  professors 
for  the  State  University  and  three  teachers  for  the 
Huntsville  Female  Seminary.  These  were  all  em- 
ployed upon  his  sole  recommendation.  On  his  re- 
turn he  had  an  important  interview  with  Henry 
Clay,  of  whose  political  party  he  had  for  several 
years  been  the  acknowledged  leader  in  Alaba_^a. 
He  urged  Clay  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
movement  in  Kentucky  for  gradual  emancipation. 
Upon  Clay's  refusal  their  political  cooperation  ter- 
minated. Birney  never  again  supported  Clay  for 
oflSce  and  regarded  him  as  in  a  large  measure  re- 
sponsible for  the  pro-slavery  reaction  in  Kentucky. 

Birney,  who  had  now  become  discouraged  re- 
garding the  prospect  of  emancipation,  during  the 
winter  of  1831  and  1832  decided  to  remove  his 


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M  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

family  to  Jacksonville,  Illinois.  He  was  deterred 
from  carrying  out  his  plan,  however,  by  his  un- 
expected appointment  as  agent  of  the  coloniza- 
tion society  in  the  Southwest  — a  mission  which 
he  undertook  from  a  sense  of  duty. 

In  his  travels  throughout  the  region  assigned  to 
him,  Birney  became  aware  of  the  aggressive  de- 
signs of  the  planters  of  the  Gulf  States  to  secure 
new  slave  territories  in  the  Southwest.    In  view  of 
these  facts  the  methods  of  the  colonization  society 
appeared  utterly  futile.     Birney  surrendered  his 
commission  and,  in  1833,  returned  to  Kentucky 
with  the  intention  of  doing  himself  what  Henry 
Clay  had  refused  to  do  three  years  earlier,  still 
hoping  that  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  Tennessee 
might  be  induced  to  abolish  slavery  and  thus  place 
the  slave  power  in  a  hopeless  minority.    His  dis- 
appointment was  extreme  at  the  pro-slavery  re- 
action which  had  taken  place  in  Kentucky.    The 
condition  called  for  more  drastic  measures,  and 
Birney  decided  to  forsake  entirely  the  coloniza- 
tion society  and  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  abolition- 
ists.   He  freed  his  slaves  in  1834,  and  in  the  follow- 
ing year  he  delivered  the  principal  address  at  the 
annual   meeting  of   the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society  held  in  New  York.    His  gift  of  leadership 


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EARLY  CRUSADERS  S7 

was  at  once  recognized.    As  vice-president  of  the 
society  he  began  to  travel  on  its  behalf,  to  address 
public  assemblies,  and  especially  to  confer  with 
members  of  state  legislatures  and  to  address  the 
legislative  bodies.     He  now  devoted  his  entire 
time  to  the  service  of  the  society,  and  as  early  as 
September,  1835,  issued  the  prospectus  of  a  paper 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  emancipation.    This  called 
forth  such  a  display  of  force  against  the  movement 
that  he  could  neither  find  a  printer  nor  obtain  the 
use  of  a  building  in  Dansville,  Kentucky,  for  the 
publication.    As  a  result  he  transferred  his  activi- 
ties to  Cincinnati,  where  he  began  publication  of 
the  Philanthropist  in  1836.    With  the  connivance 
of  the  authorities  and  encouragement  from  leading 
citizens  of  Cincinnati,  the  oflSce  of  the  Philanthro- 
jmt  was  three  times  looted  by  the  mob,  and  the 
proprietor's  life  was  greatly   endangered.     The 
paper,  however,  rapidly  grew  in  favor  and  influence 
and  thoroughly  vindicated  the  right  of  free  dis- 
cussion of  the  slavery  question.    Another  editor 
was  installed  when  Birney,  who  became  secretary 
of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  1837,  transferred 
his  residence  to  New  York  City. 

Twenty-three   years   before   Lincoln's   famous 
utterance  in  which  he  proclaimed  the  doctrine  that 


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88  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand,  and 
before  Seward's  declaration  of  an  irrepressible  con- 
flict between  slavery  and  freedom,  Birney  had  said: 
•*  There  will  be  no  cessation  of  conflict  until  slaveiy 
shall  be  exterminated  or  liberty  destroyed.    Lib- 
erty and  slavery  cannot  live  in  juxtaposition." 
He  spoke  out  of  the  fullness  of  his  own  experience. 
A  thoroughly  trained  lawyer  and  statesman,  well 
acquainted  with  the  trend  of  public  sentiment  in 
both  North  and  South,  "u-  was  fully  persuaded  that 
the  new  pro-slavery  crusade  agains.  liberty  boded 
civil  war.    He  knew  that  the  white  men  in  North 
and  South  would  not,  without  a  struggle,  consent 
to  be  permanently  deprived  of  their  liberties  at 
the  behest  of  a  few  Southern  planters.   Being  him- 
self of  the  slaveholding  class,  he  was  peculiarly 
fitted  to  appreciate  their  position.    To  him  the  new 
issue  meant  war,  unless  the  belligerent  leaders 
should  be  shown  that  war  was  hopeless.    By  his 
moderation  in  speech,  his  candor  in  statement,  his 
lack  of  rancor,  his  carefully  considered,  thoroughly 
fair  arguments,  he  had  the  rare  faculty  of  convinc- 
ing opponents  of  the  correctness  of  his  ow     iew. 

There  could  be  little  sympathy  betwee  J.rney 
and  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  whose  stj.e  of  de- 
nunciation appeared  to  the  former  as  an  incitement 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  89 

to  war  and  an  pxctiso  for  mob  violence.  As  soon  a« 
Bimey  bocanie  the  aecepted  leader  in  the  national 
society,  there  was  friction  between  his  followers 
and  those  of  (iarrison.  To  denounce  the  Constitu- 
tion and  repudiate  political  action  were,  from  Bir- 
ney's  standpoint,  a  surrender  of  the  only  hope  of 
forestalling  a  dire  calamity.  He  had  always  fought 
slavery  by  the  use  of  legal  and  constitutional 
methods,  and  he  continued  so  to  fight.  In  this 
policy  he  had  the  support  of  a  large  majority  of 
abolitionists  in  New  England  and  elsewhere.  Only 
a  few  personal  friends  accepted  Garrison's  injunc- 
tion to  forswear  politics  and  repudiate  the  Con- 
stitution. 

The  followers  of  Bimey,  failing  to  secure  recog- 
nition for  their  views  in  either  of  the  political  par- 
ties, organized  the  Liberty  party  and,  while  Bimey 
was  in  Europe  in  1840,  nominated  him  as  their 
candidate  for  the  Presidency.  The  vote  which  he 
received  was  a  little  over  seven  thousand,  but  four 
years  later  he  was  again  the  candidate  of  the  party 
and  received  over  sixty  thousand  votes.  He  suf- 
fered an  injury  during  the  following  year  which  con- 
demned him  to  hopeless  invalidism  and  brought  his 
public  career  to  an  end. 
Though  Lundy  and  Birney  were  contemporaries 


) 


I 


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I' 


W' 


t    9 


'«*» 


(H 


iiL ! 


M 


( 


•I 
I  ( 

I 


111  / 


40  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

and  were  engagt^  in  the  same  greut  cause,  they 
were  wholly  independent  in  their  work.     Lundy 
addressetl  h  r.self  almost  entirely  U,  the  non-slave- 
holding  cla.s.s.  while  all  of  Birney's  early  efforts 
were  thos**  of  n  slaveholder  seeking  to  induce  his 
own  class  to  -upport  the  policy  of  emancipation 
Though  a  NortlMMn  man.  Lundy  found  his  chief 
support  in  r  o    >    th  until  he  was  driven  out  by 
persecution.    V  r.t,'  also  resided  in  the  South  until 
he  was  fon  .  I  »o  le.ve  for  the  same  reason.     The 
two  men  we  .-  in  ^on-ral  accord  in  their  main  Imes 
of  policy:  bod.  h,  'm,  ,d  firr,?.-  in  the  use  of  political 
means  to  eff  ,     the,.  .,,;  both  were  at  first 

colonization.s  ,.  u  •.,  Lundy  favored  coloniza- 
tion in  adjacent  ter  it  rather  than  by  deporta- 
tion to  Africa 

Women  were  not  a  whit  behind  men  in  their 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  freedom.  Conspicuous 
among  them  were  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimk6, 
born  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  of  a  slavehold- 
ing  family  noted  for  learning,  refinement,  and  cul- 
tare.  Sarah  was  born  in  the  same  year  as  James 
G.  Birney,  1792;  Angelina  was  thirteen  years 
younger.  Angelina  was  the  typical  crusader:  her 
sympathies  from  the  first  were  with  the  slave.    As 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  41 

a  child  she  colitt  ted  and  concealed  oil  and  other 
simple  remedies  so  that  she  might  steal  out  by 
night  and  alleviate  the  suiferings  of  slaves  who  had 
been  cnielly  whip{)ed  or  abused.  At  the  age  of 
fourteen  she  refused  to  be  confirmed  in  the  Epis- 
copal Church  because  the  ceremony  involved 
giving  sanction  to  words  which  seemed  to  her  un- 
true. Two  years  later  her  mother  offered  her  a 
present  of  a  slave  girl  for  a  servant  and  companion. 
This  gift  she  refused  to  accept,  for  in  her  view  the 
servant  had  a  right  to  be  free,  and,  as  for  her  own 
needs,  Angelina  felt  quite  capable  of  waiting  u[>on 
herself. 

Of  het-  own  free  will  she  joined  the  PresbyU  ri  .n 
Church  and  labored  earnestly  with  the  oflScers  of 
the  church  to  induce  them  to  espou.«*e  the  cause  of 
the  slave.  When  she  failed  to  secure  cooperation, 
she  decided  that  the  church  was  not  Christian  and 
she  therefore  withdrew  her  membership.  Her  sister 
Sarah  had  gone  North  in  1821  and  had  become  a 
member  of  the  Society  of  Friends  in  Philadelphia. 
In  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  there  was  a  Friends' 
meeting-house  where  two  old  Quakers  still  met  at 
the  appointed  time  and  sat  for  an  hour  in  solemn 
silence.  Angelina  donned  the  Quaker  garb,  joined 
this  meeting,  and  for  an  entire  year  was  the  third 


< 


»  > 


■  \ 


!' 

Ii         t 


;!  t 


4«  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

of  the  silent  worshipers.     This  quiet  testimony, 
however,   did   not   wholly  satisfy  her  energetic 
nature,  and  when,  in  1830,  she  heard  of  the  im- 
prisonment of  Garrison  in  Baltimore,  she  was  con- 
vinced that  effective  labors  against  slavery  could 
not  be  carried  on  in  the  South.     With  great  sorrow 
she  determined  to  sever  her  connection  with  home 
and  family  and  join  her  sister  in  Philadelphia. 
There  the  exile  from  the  South  poured  out  her  soul 
in  an  Appeal  to  the  Christian  Women  of  the  South. 
The  manuscript  was  handed  to  the  oflScers  of  the 
Anti-Slavery  Society  in  the  city  and,  as  they  read, 
tears  filled  their  eyes.     The  Appeal  was  imme- 
diately printed  in  large  quantities  for  distribution 
in  Southern  States. 

Copies  of  the  Appeal  which  had  been  sent  to 
Charleston  were  seized  by  a  mob  and  publicly 
burned.    When  it  became  known  soon  afterwards 
that  the  author  of  the  offensive  document  was  in- 
tending to  return  to  Charleston  to  spend  the  win- 
ter with  her  family,  there  was  intense  excitement, 
and  the  mayor  of  the  city  informed  the  mother  that 
her  daughter  would  not  be  permitted  to  land  in 
Charleston  nor  to  communicate  with  any  one  there, 
and  that,  if  she  did  elude  the  police  and  come 
ashore,  she  would  be  imprisoned  and  guarded  until 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  43 

the  departure  of  the  next  boat.  On  account  of  the 
distress  which  she  wouhl  cause  to  her  friends.  Miss 
Grimke  reluctantly  gave  up  the  exercise  of  her 
constitutional  right  to  visit  her  native  city  and  in 
a  very  literal  sense  she  became  a  permanent  exile. 

The  two  sisters  let  their  light  shine  among  Phila- 
delphia Quakers.  In  the  religious  meetings  negro 
women  were  consigned  to  a  special  seat.  The 
Grimkes,  having  first  protested  against  this  dis- 
crimination, took  their  own  places  on  the  seat  with 
the  colored  women.  In  Charleston,  Angelina  had 
scrupulously  adhered  to  the  Quaker  garb  because 
it  was  viewed  as  a  protest  against  slavery.  In 
Philadelphia,  howevei-,  no  such  meaning  was  at- 
tached to  the  costume,  and  she  adopted  clothing 
suited  to  the  climate  regardless  of  conventions.  A 
series  of  parlor  talks  to  women  which  had  been  or- 
ganized by  the  sisters  grew  in  interest  until  the 
parlors  became  inadequate, .  ad  the  speakers  were 
at  last  addressing  large  audiences  of  women  in  the 
public  meeting-places  of  Philadelphia. 

At  this  time  when  Angelina  was  making  effective 
use  of  her  unrivaled  power  as  a  public  speaker,  she 
received  in  1836  an  invitation  from  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Society  of  New  York  to  address  the  women 
of  that  city.     She  informed  her  sister  that  she 


) 


/' 


■>■'  f 


}i 


1l 

•  I 


i  I 


', 


'J.     ■ 


\ir 


;  5    'I 


I 


44  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUS  VDE 

believed  this  to  be  a  call  from  God  and  that  it  was 
her  duty  to  accept.    Sarah  decided  to  be  her  com- 
panion and  assistant  in  the  work  in  the  new  field, 
which  was  similar  to  that  in  Philadelphia.     Iti 
fame  soon  extended  to  Boston,  whence  came  an 
urgent  invitation  to  visit  that  city.     It  was  in 
Massachusetts  that  men  began  to  steal  into  the 
women's  meetings  and  listen  from  the  back  seats. 
In  Lynn  all  barriers  were  broken  down,  and  a 
modest,   refined,   and   naturally   diflSdent  young 
woman  found  herself  addressing  immense  audi- 
ences of  men  and  women.    In  the  old  theater  in 
Boston  for  six  nights  in  succession,  audiences  filling 
all  the  space  listened  entranced  to  the  messenger 
of   emancipation.     There   is   uniform    testimony 
that,  in  an  age  distinguished  for  oratory,  no  more 
effective  speaker  appeared  than  Angelina  Grimk6. 
It  was  she  above  all  others  who  first  vindicated  the 
right  of  women  to  speak  to  men  from  the  public 
platform  on  political  topics.    But  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  scores  of  other  women  were  labor- 
ing to  the  same  end  and  were  fully  prepared  to 
utilize  the  new  opportunity. 

The  great  world  movement  from  slavery  towards 
freedom,  from  despotism  to  democracy,  is  charac- 
terized by  a  tendency  towards  the  equality  of  the 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  45 

sexes.  Women  have  been  slaves  where  men  were 
free.  In  barbarous  ages  women  have  been  ignored 
or  have  been  treated  as  mere  adjuncts  to  the  ruling 
sex.  But  wherever  there  has  been  a  distinct  con- 
tribution to  the  cause  of  liberty  there  has  been  a 
distinct  recognition  of  woman's  share  in  the  work. 
The  Society  of  Friends  was  organized  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  men  and  women  are  alike  moral  beings, 
hence  are  equal  in  the  sight  of  God.  As  a  matter 
of  experience,  women  were  quite  as  often  moved 
to  break  the  silence  of  a  religious  meeting  as  were 
the  men. 

For  two  hundred  years  women  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  talk  to  both  men  and  women  in  Friends* 
meetings  and,  when  the  moral  war  against  slavery 
brought  religion  and  politics  into  close  relation, 
they  were  ready  speakers  upon  both  topics.  When 
the  Grimk^  sisters  came  into  the  church  with  a 
fresh  baptism  of  the  Spirit,  they  overcame  all  ob- 
stacles and,  with  a  passion  for  righteousness,  moral 
and  spiritual  and  political,  they  carried  the  war 
against  slavery  into  politics. 

In  1833,  at  the  organization  of  the  American 
Anti-Slavery  Society  in  Philadelphia,  a  number  of 
women  were  present.  Lucretia  Mott,  a  distin- 
guished "minister"  in  the  Society  of  Friends,  took 


1: 


«f 


f*^^  y 


1  m 


^ 


.i'l 


11(1 


46         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

part  in  the  proceedings.  She  was  careful  to  state 
that  she  spoke  as  a  mere  visitor,  having  no  place 
in  the  organization,  but  she  ventured  to  suggest 
various  modifications  in  the  report  of  Garrison's 
committee  on  a  declaration  of  principles  which 
rendered  it  more  acceptable  to  the  meeting.  It 
had  not  then  been  seriously  considered  whether 
women  could  become  members  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  which  was  at  that  time  composed  exclu- 
sively of  men,  with  the  women  maintaining  their 
separate  organizations  as  auxiliaries. 

The  women  of  the  West  were  already  better 
organized  than  the  men  and  were  doing  a  work 
which  men  could  not  do.     They  were,  for  the  most 
part,  unconscious  of  any  conflict  between  the  pe- 
culiar duties  of  men  and  those  of  women  in  their 
relations  to  common  objects.    The  "library  asso- 
ciations" of  Indiana,  which  were  in  fact  effective 
anti-slavery  societies,  were  to  a  large  extent  com- 
posed of  women.     To  the  library  were  added  nu- 
merous other  disguises,  such  as  "reading  circles," 
"sewing  societies,"  "women's  clubs."     In  many 
communities  the  appearance  of  men  in  any  of  these; 
enterpri.ses  would  create  suspicion  or  even  raise  a 
mob.     But  the  women  worked  on  quietly,  effec- 
tively, and  unnoticed. 


i 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  47 

The  matron  of  a  family  would  be  provided  with 
the  best  riding-horse  which  the  neighborhood  could 
furnish.    Mounted  upon  her  steed,  she  would  sally 
forth  in  the  morning,  meet  her  carefully  selected 
friends  in  a  town  twenty  miles  away,  gain  infor- 
mation as  to  what  had  been  accomplished,  give 
information  as  to  the  work  in  other  parts  of  the 
district,  distribute  new  literature,  confer  as  to  the 
best  means  of  extending  their  labors,  and  return 
in  the  afternoon.     The  father  of  such  a  family  was 
quite  content  with  the  humbler  task  of  cooperation 
by  supplying  the  sinews  of  war.     There  was  com- 
plete equality  between  husband  and  wife  because 
their  aims  were  identical  and  each  rendered  the 
service  most  convenient  and  most  needed.    Women 
did  what  men  could  not  do.     In  the  territorj-  of 
the  enemy  the  men  were  reached  through  the 
gradual  and  tentative  efforts  of  women  whom  the 
uninitiated  supposed  to  be  spending  idle  hours  at 
a  sewing  circle.    Interest  was  maintained  by  the 
use  of  information  of  the  same  general  character  as 
that  which  later  took  the  country  by  storm  in 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.     In  course  of  time  all  disguise 
was  thrown  aside.    A  public  speaker  of  national 
reputation  would  appear,  a  meeting  would  be  an- 
nounced, and  a  routing  abolition  speech  would 


I 


"I 


1^ 


H 


l! 


48  THE  ANTI-SI  AVERY  CRUSADE 

be  delivered;  the  mere  men  of  the  neighborhood 
would  have  little  conception  how  the  surprising 
change  had  been  accomplished. 

On  rare  occasions  the  public  presentation  of 
the  anti-slavery  view  would  be  undertaken  pre- 
maturely, as  in  1840  at  Pendleton,  Indiana,  when 
Frederick  Douglass  attempted  to  address  a  public 
meeting  and  was  almost  slain  by  missiles  from  the 
mob.    Pendleton,  however,  was  not  given  over  to 
the  enemy.    The  victim  of  the  assault  was  restored 
to  health  in  the  family  of  a  leading  citizen.    The 
outrage  was  judiciously  utilized  to  convince  the 
fair-minded  that  one  of  the  evils  of  slavery  was  the 
development  of  minds  void  of  candor  and  justice. 
On  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Pendleton 
disturbance  there  was  another  great  meeting  in 
the  town.     Frederick  Douglass  was  the  hero  of  the 
occasion.     The  woman  who  was  the  head  of  the 
family  that  restored  him  to  health  was  on  the  plat- 
form.   Some  of  the  men  who  threw  the  brickbats 
were  there  to  make  public  confession  and  to  apolo- 
gize for  the  brutal  deed. 

In  the  minds  of  a  few  persons  of  rare  intellectual 
and  logical  endowment,  democracy  has  always  im- 
plied the  equality  of  the  sexes.  From  the  time  of 
the  French  Revolution  there  have  been  advocates 


!l 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  49 

of  this  doctrine.   As  early  as  1820.  Frances  Wright 
a  young  woman  in  Scotland  having  knowledge  of 
the  Western  repvbHc  founded  upon  the  professed 
principles  of  liberty  and  equality,  came  to  America 
for  the  express  purpose  of  pleading  the  cause  of 
equal  rights  for  women.    To  the  general  public 
her  doctrine  seemed  revolutionary,  threatening  the 
very  foundations  of  religion  and  morality.    In  the 
midst  of  opposition  and  persecution  she  proclaimed 
views  respecting  the  rights  and  duties  of  women 
which  today  are  generally  accepted  as  axiomatic. 

The  women  who  attended  the  meetings  for  the 
organization  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society 
were  not  suffragists,  nor  had  they  espoused  any 
special  theories  respecting  the  position  of  women. 
They  did  not  wish  to  be  members  of  the  men's 
organizations  but  were  quite  content  with  their 
own  separate  one,  which  served  its  purpose  very 
well  under  prevailing  local  conditions.     James  G. 
Birney,  the  candidate  of  the  Liberty  party  for  the 
Presidency  in  1840,  had  good  reasons  for  opposi- 
tion to  the  inclusion  of  men  and  women  in  the  same 
organization.    He  knew  that  by  acting  separately 
they  were  winning  their  way.     The  introduction  of 
a  novel  theory  involving  a  different  issue  seemed  to 
him  likely  to  be  a  source  of  weakness. 


P 


/ 


I'' 


Ih 


V 
1/ 

\l  1 1  P 
1 1.     > 


f/ 


i' 


«0         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

The  cause  of  women  was,  however,  gaining 
ground  and  winning  converts.  Lucretia  Mott 
and  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  were  delegates  to 
the  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  at  London. 
They  listened  to  the  debate  which  ended  in  the  re- 
fusal to  recognize  them  as  members  of  the  Con- 
vention because  they  were  women.  The  tone  of 
the  discussion  convinced  them  that  women  were 
looked  upon  by  men  with  disdain  and  contempt. 
Because  the  laws  of  the  land  and  the  customs  of 
society  consigned  women  to  an  inferior  position, 
and  because  there  would  be  no  place  for  eflFective 
public  work  on  the  part  of  women  until  these  laws 
were  changed,  both  these  women  became  advo- 
cates of  women's  rights  and  conspicuous  leaders  in 
the  initiation  of  the  propaganda.  The  Reverend 
Samuel  J.  May,  of  Syracuse,  New  York,  preached 
a  sermon  in  1845  in  which  he  stated  his  belief  that 
women  need  not  expect  to  have  their  wrongs  fully 
redressed  until  they  themselves  had  a  hand  in  the 
making  and  in  the  administration  of  the  laws.  This 
is  an  early  suggestion  that  equal  sufiPrage  would 
become  the  ultimate  goal  of  the  eflForts  for  righting 
women's  wrongs. 

At  the  same  time  there  were  accessions  to  the 
cause  from  a  diflFerent  source.     In  1833  Oberlin 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  « 

College  was  founded  in  northern  Ohio.   Into  some 
of  the  first  classes  there  women  were  admitted  on 
equal  terms  with  men.    In  1835  the  trustees  offered 
the  presidency  to  Professor  Asa  Mahan,  of  Lane 
Seminary.    He  was  himself  an  abolitionist  from  a 
slave  State,  and  he  refused  to  be  President  of  Ober- 
lin  College  unless  negroes  were  admitted  on  equal 
terms  with  other  students.    Oberlin  thus  became 
the  first  institution  in  the  country  which  extended 
the  privileges  of  the  higher  education  to  both  sexes 
of  all  races.    It  was  a  distinctly  religious  institution 
devoted  to  radical  reforms  of  many  kinds.    Not 
only  was  the  use  of  all  intoxicating  beverages  dis- 
carded  by  faculty  and  students  but  the  use  of  to- 
bacco as  well  was  discouraged. 

Within  fii  leen  years  after  the  founding  of  Ober- 
lin, there  were  women  graduates  who  had  something 
to  say  on  numerous  questions  of  public  interest. 
Especially  was  this  true  of  the  subject  of  temper- 
ance.    Intemperance  was  a  vice  peculiar  to  men. 
Women  and  children  were  the  chief  sufferers,  while 
men  were  the  chief  sinners.     It  was  important, 
therefore,  that  men  should  be  reached.    In  1847 
Lucy  Stone,  an  Oberlin  graduate,  began  to  address 
public  audiences  on  the  subject.    At  the  same  time 
Susan  B.  Anthony   appeared   as   a   temperance 


♦»i. 


!  i 


M  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

lecturer.  The  manner  of  their  reception  and  the  na- 
ture of  their  subject  induced  them  to  unite  het  *ily 
in  the  pending  crusade  for  the  equal  rights  of  .^  ^ 
men.   The  three  causes  thus  became  united  in  <me. 

Along  with  the  crusade  against  slavery,  intem- 
perance, and  women's  wrongs,  arose  a  fourth, 
which  was  fundamentally  connected  with  the 
slavery  question.  Quakers  and  Southern  and 
Western  abolitionists  were  ardently  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  peace.  They  would  abolish  slavery  by 
peaceable  means  because  they  believed  the  alterna- 
tive was  a  terrible  war.  To  escape  an  impending 
war  they  were  nerved  to  do  and  dare  and  to  in- 
cur great  risks.  New  England  abolitionists  who 
labored  in  harmony  with  those  of  the  West  and 
South  were  actuated  by  similar  motives.  Sumner 
first  gained  public  notice  by  a  distingiu'shed  ora- 
tion against  war.  Garrison  went  farth'jr:  he  was 
a  professional  non-resistant,  a  r.oot  taid  branch 
opponent  of  both  war  and  slavery.  John  Brown 
was  a  fanatical  antagonist  of  war  until  he  reached 
the  conclusion  that  according  to  the  Divine  Will 
there  should  be  a  short  war  of  liberation  in  place 
of  the  continuance  of  slavery,  which  was  itself  in 
his  opinion  the  most  cruel  form  of  war. 


I  la 


1^ 

'II 


EARLY  CRUSADERS  53 

Slavery  us  a  legally  recognized  institution  dis- 
appeared with  the  Civil  War.     The  war  against 
intemperance  has  n.acJe  continuous  progress  and 
this  problem  i«  apparently  a,>proaching  a  solution. 
1  he  war  against  war  as  a  recognised  institution  has 
become  the  one  all-absorbing  problem  of  civiliza- 
tion.   The  war  against  the  wrongs  of  women  is  be- 
ing  supplanted  by  efforts  to  hannonize  the  mutual 
privileges  and  duties  of  men  and  women  on  the 
basis  of  complete  equality.    As  Samuel  May  pre- 
dicted more  than  seventy  years  ago.  in  the  future 
women  are  certain  to  take  a  hand  both  in  the 
making  and  in  the  administration  of  law 


■\ 


I' 


fit.  • 


ill 


i 


«' 


CHAPTER  IV 


(    '■ 


t!i 


(! 
II 


THE   TURNING-POINT 

The  year  1831  is  notable  for  three  events  in  the 
history  of  the  anti-slavery  controversy:  on  the  first 
day  of  January  in  that  year  William  Lloyd  Garri- 
son began  in  Boston  the  pubh'cation  of  the  Libera- 
tor; in  August  there  occurred  in  Southampton, 
Virginia,  an  insurrection  of  slaves  led  by  a  negro, 
Nat  Turner,  in  which  sixty-one  white  persons  were 
massacred;  and  in  December  the  Virginia  Legisla- 
ture began  its  long  debate  on  the  question  of 
slavery. 

On  the  part  of  the  abolitionists  there  was  at  no 
time  any  sudden  break  in  the  principles  which  they 
advocated.  Lundy  did  nothing  but  revive  and 
continue  the  work  of  the  Quakers  aud  other  non- 
slaveholding  classes  of  the  revolutionary  period. 
Bimey  was  and  continued  to  be  a  typical  slave- 
holding  abolitionist  of  the  earlier  period.  Garri- 
son began  his  work  as  a  disciple  of  Lundy,  whom 


i 


THE  TURNING-POINT  « 

he  followwl  in  the  .oiukninulion  of  the  African 
colonization  schmie,  though  he  went  further  and 
rejected  vwry  form  of  colonization.  Garrison  like- 
wise repudiated  every  ph.n  for  Kraduul  emancipa- 
tion and  prof  laimt-cJ  the  duty  of  immediate  and 
unconditional  liberation  of  the  slaves. 

The  first  numbrr  of  the  Liberator  contained  an 
Address  in  the  Public,  which  sounded  the  key- 
note of  Ga rrison's  career.     " I  shall  contend  for  the 
immtnliate  enfranchisement  of  our  slave  jHjpula- 
tion  ~  I  will  be  as  harsh  as  truth  and  .is  uncom- 
promising an  justice  on  this  subject-    I  do  not 
wish  to  think,  or  sptak,  or  write  with  nuxleralion 
—  I  am  in  earnest  —  I  will  not  equivocate  ~  I 
will  not  retreat  a  single  in'-h.  and  /  irill  be  heardr 
The   New    England    Anti-Slavery    Society,    of 
which  Garrison  was  the  chit-f  organ i/r,   uus  in 
essential  harmony  with  the  societies  w!     !.  Lundy 
had  organized  in  other  sections.    Its  first  address 
to  the  public  in   1833  distinctly  recognized  the 
separate  States  as  the  sole  authority  in  the  n:at- 
tcr  of  emancipation  within  their  own  boundaries. 
Through  moral  suasion,  eschewing  all  violence  and 
sedition,  its  authors  proposed  to  secure  their  ob- 
ject.   In  the  spirit  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  and 
by  apfKjaling  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 


It 


il 


i 

i 
t 

\     • 

^f    ) 

I 


I 

i 


^- 


66  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

to  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  Constitution,  they  ex- 
horted the  entire  people  to  become  an  effective  anti- 
slavery  society.    At  the  organization  of  the  Am'-i- 
can  Anti-Slavery  Society  a  year  later,  the  division 
of  power  between   the  separate  States  and   the 
general  Government,  which  found  final  expression 
in  the  platform  of  the  Republican  party  in  1856, 
was  recognized  in  its  constitution,  and  in  a  declara- 
tion  of  principles   written   by   Garrison   himself 
occur  the  words:  "We  also  maintain  that  there  are, 
at  the  present  time,  the  highest  obligations  resting 
upon  the  people  of  the  free  States  to  remove  slavery 
by  moral  and  political  action,  us  prescribed  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States."    All  the  abo- 
litionists were  united  on  the  main  lines  of  policy. 
In  1835  Garrison,  in  the  Liberator,  called  Goil  to 
witness  that  "we  are  not  hostile  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States."     It  was  many  years 
before  Garrison  applied  to  the  cause  of  abolition 
the  peculiar  doctrine  of  non-resistance  and  philo- 
sophic anarchy  in  such  a  way  as  to  separate  himself 
and  his  few  followers  from  the  great  body  of  abo- 
litionists.   Not  until  1843  did  he  place  at  the  head 
of  his  paper  the  words:  "The  compact  which  exists 
between  the  North  and  the  South  is  a  covenant 
with  deatli  and  an  a<?reement  with  Hell  —  involv- 


THE  TURNING-POINT  57 

ing  both  parties  in  atrocious  criminality  and  should 
be  immediately  annulled."  Eleven  years  later  he 
publicly  burned  a  copy  of  the  Constitution  in  the 
streets  of  Boston,  crying  aloud,  "So  perish  all  com- 
promisers with  tyranny." 

In  the  meantime  u  division  had  arisen  among 
New  England  abolitionists,  and  at  the  annual  meet- 
ing of  the  national  society  in  New  York  in  1840 
the  opponents  of  Garrison  withdrew  and  organized 
the  American  and  "Foreign  "  Anti-Slavery  Society. 
The  disagreement  arose  partly  from  a  dispute  over 
the  question  of  the  admission  of  women  to  mem- 
bership, but  chiefly  because  of  Gnrrison's  chang- 
ing  attitude    towards    participation    in   politics. 
Garrison's   branch    retained   the    old   name   and 
was  designated  as  the  "Old  Society."     It  was  in 
fact,  however,  a  brand-new  society  proclaiming 
doctrines  and   advocating  policies  in  direct  con- 
tradiction to  those  of  the  original  organization. 
Probably  not  one  in  a  hundred  of  even  the  New 
England  abolitionists  ever  accepted   the  special 
views  which  the  Garrisonian  organization  adopted 
after  184.'}. 

The  facts  that  Garrison  himself  had  a  leading 
part  in  formulating  the  principles  and  policies  for 
political  action  which  received  new  emphasis  by 


's.f 


58  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

the  Liberty  party  of  1840  and  1844,  by  the  Free- 
soil  party  of  1848.  and  later  by  the  Republican 
party,  and  that  nearly  all  of  the  abolitionists  con- 
tinued to  be  faithful  adherents  to  those  principles, 
are  sufficient  proof  of  th*-  essential  unity  of  the 
great  anti-slavery  nnovemerrt.  The  apparent  lack 
ol  harmony  and  the  real  confusion  in  the  history  of 
the  subject  arose  from  the  peculiar  character  of  one 
remarkable  man. 

The  few  owners  of  slaves  who  had  assumed  the 
Me  of  public  defenders  of  the  institution  were  in 
tie  habit  of  using  violent  and  abusive  language 
against  anti-slavery  agitators.    This  appeared  in 
the  first  debate  oa  the  subject  during  Washington's 
administrrtion.     Every  form  of  rhetorical  abuse 
also  accompanied  the  outbreak  of  mob  violence 
against  the  reformers  at  the  time  of  Garrison's 
advent  into  the  controversy.     He  was  especially 
fitted  to  reply  in  kind.    "I  am  accused,"  said  he, 
"of  using  hard  language.     I  admit  the  charge.    I 
have  not  been  able  to  find  a  soft  word  to  describe 
villainy,  or  to  identify  the  perpetrator  of  it."    This 
was  a  new  departure  which  was  instantly  recog- 
nized by  Southern  leaders.    But  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  bitter  end.  Garrison  stands  alone  as 
preeminently  the  representative  of  this  form  of 


THE  TURNING-POINT  59 

attack.  It  was  significant,  also,  that  the  Liberator 
was  published  in  Boston,  the  literary  center  of  the 
country. 


There  is  no  evidence  that  there  was  any  direct 
connection  between  the  publication  of  the  Liberator 
and  the  sc-vile  insurrection  which  occurred  dur- 
ing the  following  August.'    It  was,  however,  but 
natural  that  the  South  should  associate  the  two 
events.    A  few  utterances  of  the  paper  were  fitted, 
if  not  intended,  to  incite  insurrection.    One  passage 
reads:  "Whenever  there  is  a  contest  between  the 
oppressed  and  the  oppressor  —  the  weapons  being 
equal  between  the  parties  —  God  knows  that  my 
heart  must  be  with   the  oppressed,  and  always 
against  the  oppressor.     Therefore,  whenever  com- 
menced, I  cannot  but  wish  success  to  all  slave  in- 
surrections."   Again :  "Rather  than  see  men  wear- 
ing their  chains  in  a  cowardly  and  servile  spirit,  I 
would,  as  an  advocate  of  peace,  much  rather  see 
them  breaking  the  heads  of  the  tyrant  with  their 
chains." 

George  Thompson,  an  EnglLsh  colaborer  with 

■  Carrison  himself  .lonie^l  any  direct  connection  with  the  Nat 
Turucr  in.*urrwtion.  See  H'lV/iuwi  l.loyd  Gamson.  Ike  Story  of  His 
Life  told  !,y  Hin  ihildren,  vol.  i.  p.  i3\. 


illi 


m 


\  ■■ 


60  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

Garrison,  is  quoted  as  saying  in  a  public  address  in 
1835  that  "Southern  slaves  ought,  or  at  least  had 
a  right,  to  cut  the  throats  of  their  masters."  ■    Such 
utterances  are  rare,  and  they  express  a  jjassing 
mood  not  in  the  least  characteristic  of  the  general 
spirit  of  the  abolition  movement;  yet  the  fact  that 
such  statements  did  emanate  from  such  a  source 
made  it  comparatively  easy  for  extremists  of  the 
opposition  to  cast  odium  upon  all  abolitionists. 
The  only  type  of  abolition  known  in  South  Caro- 
lina was  that  of  the  extreme  Garrisonian  agitators, 
and  it  furnished  at  least  a  shadow  of  excuse  for 
mob  violence  in  the  North  and  for  complete  sup- 
pression of  discussion  in  the  South.    To  encourage 
slaves  to  cut  the  throats  of  their  masters  was  far 
from  being  a  rhetorical  figure  of  speech  in  com- 
munities where  slaves  were  in  the  majority.    Santo 
Domingo  was  at  the  time  a  prosperous  republic 
founded  by  former  slaves  who  had  exterminated 
the  Caucasian  residents  of  the  island.     Negroes 
from  Santo  Domingo  had  fomented  insurrection 
in  South  Carolina.    The  Nat  Turner  incident  was 
more  than  a  suggestion  of  the  dire  possibilities 
of  the  situation.     Turner  was  a  trusted  slave,  a 

•  Schouler,  Uislory  of  the  UniUd  States  under  the  Coniitttulwn  v..I 
V.  p.  «17. 


THE  TURNING-POINT  61 

preacher  among  the  blacks.  He  succeeded  in  con- 
cealing his  plot  for  weeks.  WTien  the  massacre 
began,  slaves  not  in  the  secret  were  induced  to 
join.  A  majority  of  the  slain  were  women  and  chil- 
dren. Abolitionists  who  had  lived  in  slave  States 
never  indulged  in  flippant  remarks  fitted  to  incite 
insurrection.  This  was  reserved  for  the  few  agita- 
tors far  removed  from  the  scene  of  action. 

Southern  planters  who  had  determined  at  all 
hazards  to  perpetuate  the  institution  of  slavery 
were  peculiarly  sensitive  on  account  of  what  was 
taking  i)lace  in  Spanish  America  and  in  the  British 
West  Indies.    Mexico  abolished  slavery  in  1829, 
and  united  with  Colombia  in  encouraging  Cuba 
to  throw  off  the  Spanish  yoke,  abolish  slavery,  and 
join  the  sisterhood  of  New  World  republics.    This 
led  to  an  effective  protest  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States.    Both  Spain  and  Mexico  were  advised  that 
the  United  States  could  not  with  safety  to  its  own 
interests  permit  the  emancipation  of  slaves  in  the 
island  of  Cuba.    But  with  the  British  Emancipa- 
tion Act  of  1833,  Cuba  became  the  only  neighboring 
territory  in  which  slavery  was  legal.    These  acts  of 
emancipation  added  zeal  to  the  determmation  of 
the  Southern  planters  to  secure  territory  for  the 
indefinite  extension  of  slavery  to  the  southwest. 


n 


n|' 


m 


<i 


II 


W  \ 


r 


6«  THE  ANTI-SIAVERY  CRUSADE 

When  Lundy  and  Birney  discovered  these  plans, 
their  desire  to  husband  and  extend  the  direct  po- 
litical influence  of  abolitionists  was  greatly  stimu- 
lated.    To  this  end  they  maintained   a  moder- 
ate and  conservative  attitude.     They  took  care 
that  no  abuse  or  misrepresentation  should  betray 
them  into  any  expression  which  would  diminish 
their  influence  with  fair-minded,  reasonable  men. 
They  were  convinced  that  a  clear  and  complete 
revelation   of   the  facts   would   lead  a  majority 
of  the  people  to  adopt  theii  views. 

The  debate  in  the  Virginia  Legislature  in  the 
session  which  met  three  months  after  the  South- 
ampton massacre  furnishes  a  demonstration  that 
the  traditional  anti-slavery  sentiment  still  persisted 
among  the  rulers  of  the  Old  Dominion.    It  arose 
out  of  a  petition  from  the  Quakers  of  the  State 
asking  for  an  investigation  preparatory  to  a  giiid- 
ual  emancipation  of  the  slaves.    The  debate,  which 
lasted  for  several  weeks,  was  able  and  thorough. 
No  stronger  utterances  in  condemnation  of  slavery 
were  ever   voiced   than   appear   in    this  debate. 
DiflTerent  speakers  made  the  statement  that  no  one 
presumed  to  defend  slavery  on  principle  -  that 
apologists  for  slavery  existed  but  no  defenders. 


THE  TURNING-POINT  6S 

Opposition  to  the  petition  wus  in  the  main  apolo- 
getic in  tone. 

A  darker  picture   of   the   blighting  effects  of 
slavery  on  the  industries  of  the  country  was  never 
drawn  than  ui)pears  in  these  speeches.     Slavery 
was  declared  to  be  driving  free  laborers  from  the 
State,  to  have  already  destroyed  every  industry 
except  agriculture,  and  to  have  exhausted  the  soil 
so  that  profitable  agriculture  was  becoming  extinct, 
while  pine  brush  was  encroaching  upon   former 
fruitful  fields.    "Even  the  wolf, "  said  one,  "driven 
back  long  since  by  the  approach  of  man,  now  re- 
turns, after  the  lapse  of  a  hundred  years,  to  howl 
over  the  desolations  of  slavery."     Contrasts  be- 
tween free  labor  in  northern  industry  and  that  of 
the  South  were  vividly  portrayed.    In  a  speech  of 
great  power,  one  member  referred  to  Kentucky 
and  Ohio  as  States  "providentially  designated  to 
exhibit   in    their  future  histories   the   differences 
which  necessarily  result  from  a  country  free  from, 
and  a  country-  afflicted  with  the  curse  of  slavery." 
The  debate  was  by  no  means  confined  to  indus- 
trial or  material  considerations.     McDowell,  who 
was  afterwards  elected  Ciovernor  of  the  State,  thus 
portrays  the  personal  relations  of  master  and  slave: 
"You  may  place  the  slave  where  you  please  —  you 


h 


te 


II 


it 

I? 


•4         THE  ANTISIAVERY  CRUSADE 

may  put  him  undtr  uny  process,  which,  without 
destroying  his  value  as  a  slave,  will  debase  and 
crush  him  lis  a  rational  being  —  you  may  do  all  this, 
and  the  idea  that  he  was  bom  to  be  free  will  sur- 
vive it  all.  It  is  allied  to  Ws  hope  of  immortality  — 
it  is  the  ethereal  part  of  his  nature  which  oppres- 
sion  cannot  reach  -  it  is  a  torch  lit  up  in  his  soul 
by  the  hand  of  the  Deity,  and  never  meant  to  be 
extinguished  by  the  hand  of  man." 

Various  speakers  assumed  that  the  continuance 
of  slavery   involved  a  bloody  conflict;  that  either 
peaceal)ly  or  through  violence,  slavery  as  contrary 
to  the  spir "!  of  the  age  must  come  to  an  end;  that 
the  agitation  against  it  could  not  be  suppresse<l. 
Faulkner  drew  a  lurid  picture  of  llu-  danger  from 
servile  insurrection,  in   which  he  referriMj  to  the 
utterances  of  two  former  speakers,  one  of  whom 
had  said  that,  unless  something  effective  was  done 
to  ward  of?  the  danger,  "the  throats  of  all  the  white 
people  of  Virginia  will  be  cut."    ITie  other  replied. 
"No,    the    whites    cannot    be    conquered  —  the 
throats  of  the  blacks  will  be  cut."    Faulkner's  re- 
joinder  was  that  the  difference  was  a  trifling  one, 
"for  the  fact  is  conceded  that  one  race  or  the  other 
must  be  exterminated." 
The  public  press  joined  in  the  debate.    Leading 


i 


THE  TURNING-POINT  « 

editorials  apjH-umJ  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer  urf?- 
inK  that  rfft'tlive  nicasurt's  hv  institnlttl  to  put  an 
end  to  slaviry.    Tlw  dt-hatf  aroused  much  interest 
throughout  the  South.    Substantially  all  the  cur- 
rent abolition  argunionts  appi'arcd  in  the  speeches 
of  the  slave-owning  members  of  the  N'irginia  Legis- 
lature.   And  what  was  done  about  it?    Nothing  at 
all.    The  petition  was  not  granltnl;  no  action  look- 
ing towards  emancipation  was  taken.     This  was 
indeed  a  turning-point.    Men  tlo  not  continue  to 
denounce  in  public  their  own  conduct  unless  their 
action   results  in  some  effort   toward  corrective 
measures. 

Professor  Thomas  Dew,  of  the  chair  of  history 
and  metaphysics  in  William  and  Mary  College  and 
later  President  of  the  College.  pubHshwl  an  essay 
reviewing  the  debate  in  the  Legislature  and  argu- 
ing that  any  plan  for  emancijiation  in  Virginia  was 
either  undesirable  or  impossible.  This  essay  was 
among  the  first  of  the  direct  pro-slavery  arguments. 
Statements  in  support  of  the  view  soon  followed. 
In  1835  the  Ctovernor  of  South  Carolina  in  a  mes- 
sage to  the  Legislature  said,  "Domestic  slavery  is 
the  comer-stone  of  our  republican  edifice."  Sena- 
tor Calhoun,  speaking  in  the  Senat«'  two  years 
later,   declared   slavery   to   be   a  positive  good. 


ilr 


I ' 


11 


I  i . 


I!    '  (■ 


••         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
W.  G.  Simms,  Southern  pott  and  nowFist,  writing 
in  1852.  felicitates  himself  us  luing  umonK  the  Brat 
who  about  fifteen  years  ./irher  advocated  slavery 
"agreatgoodandablesHing.    Harriet  Martineau, 
an  Enghsh  author  who  traveled  extensively  in  the 
South  in  1835,  found  few  slaveholders  who  justified 
the  institution  as  being  in  itself  just.     But  after 
the  debates  in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  there  were 
few  owners  of  slaves  who  piihllrly  advocated  abo- 
lition.     I'he  spirit  (.f   mob   violence  had  set  in, 
and.  contrary  to  the  utterane, ,.  of  Virginia  sUtes- 
mcn.  fr«i'  .speech  on  the  subj.    I  of  slavery  was 
suppressed  in  the  .slave  States,     f  his  did  not  mean 
that  Southern  statesmen  had  lost  the  power  to  per- 
ceive the  evil  effects  of  slavery  or  that  they  were 
convinced  that  th«ir  former  views  were  erroneous. 
It  meant   simply  that   they  had   failed  to  agree 
upon  a  policy  of  gradual  emancipation,  and  the 
only  recourse  left  seemed  to  be  to  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  James  G.  Birney  and  leave  the  South  or 
to  submit  in  silence  to  the  new  order. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE   VINDICATION   OP   LIBEKTY 

With  the  changwl  ottitude  of  the  South  towards 
enmncipation  there  wus  tuwociated  an  active  hos- 
tility to  dearly  bought  human  hberty.    Freedom  of 
speech,  freedom  of  the  press,  freedom  of  worship, 
the  right  of  assembly,  trial  by  jury,  the  right  of 
petition,  free  use  of  the  mails,  and  numerous  other 
fundamental  human  rights  were  assailed.    Birney 
and  other  abolitionists  who  had  immediate  knowl- 
edge of  slavery  early  perceived  that  the  real  ques- 
tion  at  issue  was  quite  as  much  the  continued 
liberty  of  the  white  man  as  it  was  the  liberation 
of  the  black  man  and  that  the  enslavement  of  one 
race  involved  also  the  ultimate  essential  enslave- 
ment of  the  other. 

In  1881  two  slave  States  and  six  free  States  still 
extended  to  free  negroes  the  right  to  vote.  Dur- 
ing the  pro-slavery  crusade  these  privileges  dis- 
appeared; and  not  only  so,  but  free  negroes  were 

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68  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

banished  from  certain  States,  or  were  not  permitted 
to  enter  them,  or  were  allowed  to  remain  only  by 
choosing  a  white  man  for  a  guardian.    It  was  made 
a  crime  to  teach  negroes,  whether  slaves  or  free 
men,  to  read  and  write.    Under  various  pretexts 
free  negroes  were  reduced  to  slavery.    Freedom  of 
worship  was  denied  to  negroes,  and  they  were  not 
allowed  to  assemble  for  any  purpose  except  un- 
der the  strict  surveillance  of  white  men.     Negro 
testimony  in  a  court  of  law  was  invalid  where 
the  rights  of  a  white  man  were  involved.      The 
right  of  a  negro  to  his  freedom  was  decided  by 
an  arbitrary  court  without  a  jury,  while  the  dis- 
puted right  of  a  white  man  to  the  ownership  of 
a  horse  was  conditioned  by  the  safeguard  of  trial 
by  jury. 

The  maintenance  of  such  policies  carries  with  it 
of  necessity  the  suppression  of  free  discussion. 
When  Southern  leaders  adopted  the  policy  of 
defending  slavery  as  a  righteous  institution,  abo- 
litionists in  the  South  either  emigrated  to  the 
North  or  were  silenced.  In  either  case  they  were 
deprived  of  a  fundamental  right.  The  spirit  of 
persecution  followed  them  into  the  free  States. 
Birney  could  not  publish  his  paper  in  Kentucky, 
nor  even  at  Cincinnati,  save  at  the  risk  of  his  life. 


THE  VINDICATION  OF  LIBERTY        69 

Elijah  Lovejoy  was  not  allowed  to  publish  his 
paper  in  Missouri,  and,  when  he  persisted  in  pub- 
lishing it  in  Illinois,  he  was  brutally  murdered. 
Even  in  Boston  it  required  men  of  courage  and  de- 
termination to  meet  and  organize  an  anti-slavery 
society  in  18.'3'2,  though  only  a  few  years  earlier 
Benjamin  Lundy  had  traveled  freely  through  the 
South  itself  delivering  anti-slavery  lectures  and 
organizing  scores  of  such  societies.  The  Xe  v  York 
Anti-Slavery  Society  was  secretly  organized  in  1832 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  a  determined  mob. 
Mob  violence  was  everywhere  rife.  Meetings 
were  broken  up,  negro  quarters  attacked,  property 
destroyed,  murders  committed. 

Fair-minded  men  became  abolitionists  on  ac- 
count of  the  crusade  against  the  rights  of  white 
men  quite  as  much  us  from  their  interest  in  the 
rights  of  negroes.  Salmon  P.  Chase  of  Ohio  was 
led  to  espouse  the  cause  by  observing  the  attacks 
upon  the  freedom  of  the  press  in  Cincinnati.  Ger- 
rit  Smith  witnessed  the  breaking  up  of  an  anti- 
slavery  meeting  in  Utica,  New  York,  and  there- 
after consecrated  his  time,  his  talents,  and  his  great 
wealth  to  the  cause  of  liberty.  Wendell  Phillips 
saw  Garrison  in  the  hands  of  a  Boston  mob,  and 
that  experience  determined  him  to  make  commf>.i 


hi  I"' 


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70  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

cause  with  the  martyr.    And  the  murder  of  Love- 
joy  in  1837  made  many  active  abolitionists. 

It  is  diflScuIt  to  imagine  a  more  inoflfensive  prac- 
tice than  giving  to  negro  girls  the  rudiments  of 
an  education.  Yet  a  school  for  this  purpose,  taught 
by  Miss  Prudence  Crandall  in  Canterbury,  Con- 
necticut, was  broken  up  by  persistent  persecution, 
a  .''pecial  act  of  the  Legislature  being  passed  for  the 
purpose,  forbidding  the  teaching  of  negroes  from 
outside  the  State  without  the  consent  of  the  town 
authorities.  Under  this  act  Miss  Crandall  was  ar- 
rested, convicted,  and  imprisoned. 

Having  eliminated  free  discussion  from  the 
South,  the  Southern  States  sought  to  accomplish 
the  same  object  in  the  North.  In  pursuance  of 
a  resolution  of  the  Legislature,  the  Governor  of 
Georgia  offered  a  reward  of  live  thousand  dollars 
to  any  one  who  should  arrest,  bring  to  trial,  and 
prosecute  to  conviction  under  the  laws  of  Geor^  - 
the  editor  of  the  Liberator.  R.  G.  Williams,  publish- 
ing agent  for  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
was  indicted  by  a  grand  jury  of  Tuscaloosa  County, 
Alabama,  and  Governor  Gayle  of  Alabama  made  a 
requisition  on  Governor  Marcy  of  New  York  for 
his  extradition.  Williams  had  never  been  in  Ala- 
bama.   His  offense  consisted  in  publishing  m  th^ 


THE  VINDICATION  OF  LIBERTY        71 

New  York  Emancipator  a  few  rather  mild  utter- 
ances against  slavery. 

Governor  McDuffie  of  South  Carolina  in  an  ofl3- 
cial  message  declared  that  slavery  was  the  very 
corner-stone  of  the  republic,  auding  that  the  labor- 
ing population  of  any  country,  "blea'-hed  or  un- 
bleached," was  a  dangerous  element  in  the  body 
politic,  and  predicting  that  within  twenty-five 
years  the  laboring  people  of  the  North  would  be 
virtually  reduced  to  slavery.  Referring  to  aboli- 
tionists, he  said:  "The  laws  of  every  community 
should  punish  this  species  of  interference  with 
death  without  benefit  of  clergy."  Pursuant  to 
the  Governor's  recommendation,  the  Legislature 
adopted  a  resolution  calling  upon  non-slaveholding 
States  to  pass  laws  to  suppress  promptly  and  effec- 
tively all  abolition  societies.  In  nearly  all  the  slave 
States  similar  resolutions  were  adopted,  and  con- 
certed action  against  anti-slavery  effort  was 
undertaken.  During  the  winter  of  1835  and  1836, 
the  Governors  of  the  free  States  received  these 
resolutions  from  the  South  and,  instead  of  resent- 
ing them  as  an  uncalled-for  interference  with  the 
rights  of  free  commonwealths,  they  treated  them 
with  respect.  Edward  Everett,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, in  his  message  presenting  the  Southern 


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72  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

documents  to  tho  Legislature,  said :  "  Whatever  by 
direct  and  necessary  operation  is  calculated  to 
excite  an  insurrection  among  the  slaves  has  been 
held,  by  highly  respectable  legal  authority,  an 
offense  against  this  Commonwealth  which  may  be 
prosecuted  as  a  misdemeanor  at  common  law." 
Governor  Marcy  of  New  York,  in  a  like  document, 
declared  that  "without  the  power  to  pass  such 
lav     the  States  would  not  possess  all  the  neces- 
sary means  for  preserving  their  external  relations 
of  peace  among  themselves."    Even  before  the 
Southern    requests    reached    Rhode   Island,    the 
Legislature  had  under  consideration  a  bill  to  sup- 
press abol^  ion  societies. 

When  a  committee  of  the  Massachusetts  Legis- 
lature had  been  duly  organized  to  consider  the 
documents  received  from  the  slave  States,  the  abo- 
litionists requested  the  privilege  of  a  hearing  before 
the  committee.  Receiving  no  reply,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  formulate  a  statement  of  their  case;  but 
before  they  could  publish  it,  they  were  invited  to 
appear  before  the  joint  committee  of  the  two 
houses.  The  public  had  been  aroused  by  the  issue 
and  there  was  a  large  audience.  The  case  for  the 
abolitionists  was  stated  by  their  ablest  speakers, 
among  whom  was  William  Lloyd  Garrison.    They 


THE  VIXDICA-^ION  OF  LIBERTY        73 

labored  to  convince  the  committee  that  their  utter- 
ances were  not  incendiary,  and  that  any  legislative 
censure  directed  against  them  would  be  an  en- 
couragement to  mob  violence  and  the  persecution 
which  was  already  the!'-  lot.     After  the  defensive 
arguments  had  been  fully  presented,  William  Good- 
ell  took  the  floor  and  proceeded  to  charge  upon  the 
Southern  States  which  had  made  these  demands  a 
conspiracy  against  the  liberties  of  the  North.    In 
the  midst  of  great  excitement  and  many  interrup- 
tions by  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  he  quoted 
the  language  of  Governor  McDuffie's   message, 
and  characterized  the  documents  lying  on  the 
table  before  him  as  "  fetters  for  Northern  freemen." 
Then,  turning  to  the  committee,  he  began,  "Mr. 
Chairman,  are  you  prepared  to  attempt  to  put 
them   on.''"  —  but   the   sentence  was   only   half 
finished  when  the  stentorian  voice  of  the  chairman 
interrupted  him:  "Sit  down,   sir!"   and   he  sat 
down.     The  committee  then  arose  and  left  the 
room.    But  the  audience  did  not  rise;  they  waited 
till  other  abolitionists  found  their  tongues  and  gave 
expression  to  a  fixed  determination  to  uphold  the 
liberties  purchased  for  them  by  the  blood  of  their 
fathers.     The  Massachusetts  Legislature  did  not 
comply  with  the  request  of  Governor  McDuffie  of 


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74  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

South  Carolina  to  take  the  first  step  towards  the 
enslavement  of  all  labo.  crs,  white  as  well  as  black. 
And  Rhode  Island  refused  to  enact  into  law  the 
pending  bill  for  the  suppression  of  anti-slavery 
societies.  They  declined  to  violate  the  plain  re- 
quirements of  their  Constitution  that  the  interests 
of  slavery  might  be  promoted.  Not  many  years 
later  they  were  ready  to  strain  or  break  the  Con- 
stitution for  the  sake  of  liberty. 

In  the  general  crusade  against  liberty  churches 
proved  more  pliable  than  States.    The  authority  of 
nearly  all  the  leading  denominations  was  directed 
against  the  abolitionists.    The  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  passed  in  1836 
a  resolution  censuring  two  of  their  members  who 
had  lectured  in  favor  of  modern  abolitionism.    The 
Ohio  Conference  of  the  same  denomination  had 
passed  resolutions  urging  resistance  to  the  anti- 
slavery  movement.    In  June,  1836,  the  New  York 
Conference  decided  that  no  one  should  be  chosen 
as  deacon  or  elder  who  did  not  give  pledge  that 
he  would  refrain  from  agitating  tl     church  on  the 
subject. 

The  same  spirit  appeared  in  theological  semi- 
naries. The  trustees  of  Lane  Seminary,  jear 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  voted  that  students  should  not 


I 

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75 


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THE  VINDICATION  OF  LIBERTY 

organize  or  be  members  of  unti-sluvery  societic 
hold  meetings  or  lecture  or  speak  on  the  subj^  v  t. 
Whereupon  the  students  left  in  u  body,  and  many 
of  the  professors  withdrew  and  united  with  others 
in  the  founding  of  an  anti-slavery  college  at  Oberlin. 
A  persistent  attack  was  also  directed  against  the 
use  of  the  United  States  mails  for  the  distribution 
of  anti-slavery  literature.     Mob  violence  which  in- 
volved the  post-office  began  as  early  as  1830,  when 
printed  copies  of  Miss  Grimke's  Appeal  to  the  Chris- 
tian Women  of  the  South  were  seized  and  burned 
in  Charleston.     In  1835  large  quantities  of  anti- 
slavery  literature  were  removed  from  the  Charles- 
ton oflSce  and  in  the  presence  of  the  assembletl 
citizens  committed  to  the  flames.    Postmasters  on 
their  own  motion  examined  the  mails  and  refused 
to  deliver  an/  matter  that  they  deemed  incendiary. 
Amos  Kendall,  Postmaster-General,  was  requested 
to  issue  an  order  authorizing  such  conduct.    He 
replied  that  he  had  no  legal  authority  to  issue  such 
an  order.    Yet  he  would  not  recommend  the  de- 
livery < .        '   -capers.    "We  owe,"  said  he,  "an 
obliga*-    ,  iie  laws,  but  a  higher  one  to  the 

commu  .i  which  we  live,  and  if  the  former 

be  perverted  to  destroy  the  latter,  it  is  patriotism 
to  disregard  them.    Entertaining  these  views,  I 


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76  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

cannot  .sunclion,  umJ  will  not  con<K'mn,  the  strp 
you  huvo  tuken."     This  is  an  early  instance  of  the 
appeal  to  the  "higlier  law  "  in  the  pro->lavery  con- 
troversy.   The  higher  law  was  invokini  against  the 
freedom  of  the  press.    The  New  York  post  must  »r 
sought  to  (h'ssuade  the  Anti-Shivery  Society  from 
the  attempt  to  .send  its  puhhcations  through  the 
mails  into  Southern  States.    In  reply  to  u  request 
for  authorization  to  refuse  to  accept  such  publica- 
tions, the  Postmaster-Cleneral  replied:  "I  am  de- 
terred from  giving  an  order  to  exclude  the  whole 
series  of  abolition  publications  from  the  Southern 
mails  only  by  a  Wi;nt  of  legal  power,  and  if  I 
were  situated  as  you  are,  I  would  do  as  you  have 
done." 

Mr.  Kendall's  letters  to  the  postmasters  of 
Charleston  and  New  York  were  written  in  July 
and  August,  1835.  In  December  of  the  same  year, 
presumably  with  full  knowledge  that  a  member  of 
his  Cabinet  was  encouraging  violations  of  law  in 
the  interest  of  slavery.  President  Jackson  under- 
took to  supply  the  need  of  legal  authorization.  In 
his  annual  message  he  made  a  savage  attack  upon 
the  abolitionists  and  recommended  to  Congress  the 
"passing  of  such  a  law  as  will  prohibit,  under 
severe  penalties,  the  circulation  in  the  Southern 


'n 


THE  VIXDICATION  OF  LIBERTY        77 

States.  throuKh  thr  ,„ai|,  of  incetuliurv  iml.llca- 
tions." 

This  part  of  the  Presi.l.nfs  nu'ssaffe  was  rt- 
ferml  to  a  selrtt  conunltt.e,  of  which  John  C. 
Calhoun  was  chainnan.     The  chairman's  n-port 
•^•as  against  the  adoption  of  the  President's  recom- 
mendation l)ecause  a  subject  of  such  vital  interest 
to  the  States  ought  not  to  h    lH  to  Congress.    The 
admission  of  the  right  of  Congress  to  .lecide  what 
i.s  incendiiiry,  asserted  the  re,,ort.  carries  with  it 
the  power  to  decide  what  is  not  incendiary  jind 
hence  Congress  might  authorize  and  enforce  the 
circulation  of  abolition  literature  through  the  maih 
in  all  the  States.     The  States  should  themselves 
severally  decide  what  in  their  judgment  is  incen- 
diary,  and  then  it  would  become  the  duty  of  the 
general  Government  to  give  effect  to  such  state 
laws.    The  bill  recommended  was  in  harmony  with 
this  view.   It  was  made  illegal  for  any  deputy  post- 
master "to  deliver  to  any  person  whatsoever,  any 
pamphlet,  newspaper,  handbill,  or  other  printed 
paper,  or  pictorial   representation  touching    the 
subject  of  slavery,  where  by  the  laws  of  the  said 
State,  territory,  or  .       rict  their  circulation  is  pro- 
hibited."   The  bill  was  defeated  in  the  Senate  by  a 
small  margin.  Altogether  there  was  an  enlightening 


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T8         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
debate  on  the  whole  subject.    The  expoHure  of 
the  abuse  of  tampering  with  the  mail  creatwl  a 
general  reaction,  which  enihlt.,|  the  abolitionisl.s 
to  win  a  spectacular  victory.    Instead  of  a  law  for- 
bidding  the  circulation  of  anti-slavery  publications, 
Congress  enacted  a  law  requiring  postal  officials 
under  heavy  penalties   to  deliver  without  dis- 
crimination all  matter  committed  to  their  charge. 
This  act  was  signed  by  President  Jackson,  and  Cal- 
houn  himself  was  induced  to  admit  that  the  pur- 
poses  of  the  abolitionists  were  not  violent  and 
revolutionary.     Henceforth  abolitionists  enjoyed 
their  full  privileges  in  the  use  of  the  United  States 
mail. 

An  even  more  dramatic  victory  was  thrust  upon 
the  abolitionists  by  the  inordinate  violence  of  their 
opponents  in  their  attack  upon  the  right  of  peti- 
tion.   John  Quincy  Adams,  who   became   their 
distinguished  champion,  was  not  himself  an  aboli- 
tionist.   When,  as  a  member  of  the  lower  House  of 
Congress  in  1831.  he  presented  petitions  from  cer- 
tain citizens  of  Pennsylvania,  presumably  Quakers, 
requesting  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  and  the 
slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  he  refused 
to  countenance  their  prayer,  and  expressed  the 
wish  that  the  memorial  might  be  referred  without 


..»:  I-    '« 


^^       s     -     JOHN  qVISCY  MUMS 

*•»»  hf  Horatio  GrawouKh.    In  the  oollectioa  of  |Ko  N«r  York 

J       Hiitiirical  HoHety. 


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THE  VINDICATION  OF  LIBERTY        79 

debate.  At  the  very  time  when  a  New  England 
ex-President  was  thus  advising  abolitionists  to  de- 
sist from  sending  petitions  to  Congress,  the  Vir- 
ginia Legislature  was  engaged  in  the  memorable 
debate  upon  a  similar  petition  from  Virginia 
Quakers,  in  which  most  radical  abolition  sentiment 
was  expressed  by  actual  slave-owners.  Adams  con- 
tinued to  present  anti-slavery  memorials  and  at  the 
same  time  to  express  his  opposition  to  the  demands 
of  the  petitioners.  When  in  1835  there  arose  a 
decided  opposition  to  the  reception  of  such  docu- 
ments, Adams,  still  in  apparent  sympathy  with 
the  pro-slavery  South  on  the  main  issue,  gave  wise 
counsel  on  the  method  of  dealing  with  petitions. 
They  should  be  received,  said  he,  and  referred  to  a 
committee;  because  the  right  of  petition  is  sacred. 
This,  he  maintained,  was  the  best  way  to  avoid 
disturbing  debate  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  He 
quoted  his  own  previous  experience;  he  had  made 
known  his  opposition  to  the  purposes  of  the  peti- 
tioners; their  memorials  were  duly  referred  to  a 
committee  and  there  they  slept  the  sleep  of  death. 
At  that  time  only  one  voice  had  been  raised  in  the 
House  in  support  of  the  abolition  petitioners,  that 
of  John  Dickson  of  New  York,  who  had  delivered 
a  speech  of  two  hours  in  length  advocating  their 


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80  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

cause;  but  not  a  voice  was  raised  in  reply. 


Mr. 


Adams  mentioned  this  incident  with  approval. 
The  way  to  forestall  disturbing  debate  in  Congress, 
he  said,  was  scrupulously  to  concede  all  constitu- 
tional rights  and  then  simply  to  refrain  from  speak- 
ing on  the  subject. 

This  sound  advice  was  not  followed.    For  several 
months  a  considerable  part  of  the  time  of  the  House 
was  occupied  with  the  question  of  handling  aboli- 
tion petitions.     And  finally,  in  May,  1836,  the 
following  resolution  passed  the  House:  "Resolved, 
That  all  petitions,  memorials,  resolutions,  proposi- 
tions, or  papers  relating  in  any  way  or  to  any 
extent  whatever  to  the  subject  of  slavery  or  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  shall,  without  being  either 
printed  or  referred,  be  laid  on  the  table,  and  that 
no  further  action  whatever  shall  be  had  thereon." 
This  is  commonly  known  as  the  "gag  resolution." 
During  four  successive  years  it  was  reenacted  in 
one  form  or  another  and  was  not  repealed  by 
direct  vote  until  1844. 

When  the  name  of  Mr.  Adams  was  called  in  the 
vote  upon  the  passage  of  the  above  resolution,  in- 
stead of  answering  in  the  ordinary  way,  he  said: 
"I  hold  the  resolution  to  be  a  direct  violation  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  of  the  rules 


THE  VINDICATION  OF  LIBERTY        81 

of  this  House,  and  of  the  rights  of  my  constitu- 
ents."   This  was  the  beginning  of  the  duel  between 
the  "old  man  eloquent"  and  a  determined  major- 
ity in  the  House  of  Representatives.    Adams  de- 
veloped undreamed-of  resources  as  a  debater  and 
parliamentarian.    He  made  it  his  special  business 
to  break  down  the  barrier  against  the  right  of  peti- 
tion.    Abolitionists  cooperated  with  zeal  in  the 
effort.    Their  champion  was  abundantly  supplied 
with  petitions.    The  gag  resolution  was  designed 
to  prevent  all  debate  on  the  subject  of  slavery.    Its 
effect  in  the  hands  of  the  shrewd  parliamentarian 
was  to  foment  debate.    On  one  occasion,  with  great 
apparent  innocence,  after  presenting  the  usual  abo- 
lition petitions,  Adams  called  the  attention  of  the 
Speaker  to  one  which  purported  to  be  signed  by 
twenty-two  slaves  and  asked  whether  such  a  peti- 
tion should  be  presented  to  the  House,  since  he  was 
himself  in  doubt  as  to  the  rules  applicable  in  such  a 
case.    This  led  to  a  furious  outbreak  in  the  House 
which  lasted  for  three  days.     Adams  was  threat- 
ened with  censure  at  the  bar  of  the  House,  with 
expulsion,  with  the  grand  jury,  with  the  peniten- 
tiary; and  it  is  believed  that  only  his  great  age  and 
national  repute  shielded  him  from  personal  violence. 
After   numerous   passionate   speeches    had   been 


,i   :' 


82  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

delivered,  Adams  injected  a  few  important  correc- 
tions into  the  debate.     He  reminded  the  House 
that  he  had  not  presented  a  petition  purporting 
to  emanate  from  slaves;  on  the  contrary,  he  had 
expressly  declined  to  present  it  until  the  Speaker 
had  decided  whether  a  petition  from  slaves  was 
covered  by  the  rule.    Moreover,  the  petition  was 
not  against  slavery  but  in  favor  of  slavery.    He 
was  then  charged  with  the  crime  of  trifling  with  the 
sensibilities  of  the  House;  and  I'inally  the  champion 
of  the  right  of  petition  took  the  floor  in  his  own  de- 
fense.   His  language  cut  to  the  quick.    His  calum- 
niators were  made  to  feel  the  force  of  his  biting 
sarcasm.    They  were  convicted  of  injustice,  and  all 
their  resolutions  of  censure  were  withdrawn.    The 
victory  was  complete. 

After  the  year  1838  John  Quincy  Adams  had  the 
effective  support  of  Joshua  R.  Giddings  from  the 
Western  Reserve,  Ohio  —  who  also  fought  a  pitched 
battle  of  his  own  which  illustrates  another  phase 
of  the  crusade  against  liberty.  The  ship  Creole  had 
sailed  from  Baltimore  to  New  Orleans  in  1841  with 
a  cargo  of  slaves.  The  negroes  mutinied  on  the 
high  seas,  slew  one  man,  gained  possession  of  the 
vessel,  sailed  to  Nassau,  and  were  there  set  free 
by  the  British  G  avernment.   Prolonged  diplomatic 


THE  VINDICATION  OF  LIBERTY        83 

"egotiations  followed  in  which  our  Government 
iu'lcJ  that,  as  slaves  were  property  in  the  United 
States,  they  continued  to  be  such  on  the  high  seas. 
In  the  m,dst  of  the  controversy.  Giddings  intro- 
duced a  resolution  into  the  House,  declaring  that 
slavery,  being  an  abridgment  of  liberty,  could  exist 
only  under  local  rules,  and  that  on  the  high  seas 
there  can  be  no  slavery.    For  this  act  Giddings  was 
arraigned  and  censured  by  the  House.    He  at  once 
resigned,  but  was  reelected  with  instructions  to 
continue  the  fight  for  freedom  of  debate  in  the 
House. 

In  the  campaign  against  the  rights  of  freemen 
mob  violence  was  first  employed,  but  in  the  South 
the  weapon  of  repressive  legislation  was  soon  sub- 
stituted   and  this  was  powerfully  supplemented 
by  social  and  religious  ostracism.     Except  in  a  few 
districts  m  the  border  States,  these  measures  were 
successful     Public  profession  of  abolitionism  was 
suppressed.    The  violence  of  the  mob  was  of  much 
longer  duration  in  the  North  and  reached  its  height 
m  the  years  1834  and  1835.    But  Northern  mobs 
only  quickened  the  zeal  of  the  abolitionists  and 
made  converts  to  their  cause.    The  attempt  to  sub- 
stitute repressive  state  legislation  had  the  same 
effect,  ano  ^be  use  of  church  authority  for  making 


H 


i" 


\i 


f 


i   1 


84  THE  ANTI  SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

an  end  of  the  agitation  for  human  liberty  was  only 
temporarily  influential. 

As  early  as  1838  the  Presbyterian  Church  was 
divided  over  questions  of  doctrine  into  Old  School 
and  New  School  Presbyterians.    This  served  to 
forestall  the  impending  division  on  the  slavery 
question.    The  Old  School  in  the  South  became 
pro-slavery  and  the  New  School  in  the  North  be- 
came anti-slavery.    At  the  same  time  the  Metho- 
dist Church  of  the  entire  country  was  beset  by  a 
division  on  the  main  question.    In  1844  Southern 
Methodist  Episcopalian  conferences  resolved  upon 
separation  and  committed  themselves  to  the  de- 
fense of  slavery.    The  division  in  the  Methodist 
Church  was  completed  in  1846.    A  corresponding 
division  took  place  in  the  Baptist  Church  in  1845. 
The  controversy  was  dividing  the  country  into  a 
free  North  and  an  enslaved  South,  and  Southern 
white  men  as  well  as  negroes  were  threatened 
with  subjection  to  the  demands  of  the  dominant 
institution. 


)V 


CHAITER  VI 

THE  SUWEKY  ISSUE  IN  POLITICS 

Some  who  opposed  mob  violence  became  active 
abolitionists;  others  were  led  to  defend  the  rights 
of  abolitionists  because  to  do  otherwise  would  en- 
courage anarchy  and  general  disorder.  The  same 
was  true  of  those  who  defended  the  right  of  peti- 
tion and  the  free  use  of  the  mails  and  the  entire 
hst  of  the  fundamental  rights  of  freemen  which 
were  threatened  by  the  crusade  against  abolition- 
ists.   Birney's  contention  that  unless  the  slave  is 
freed  no  one  can  be  free  was  thus  vindicated:  the 
issue  involved  vastly  more  than  the  mere  emanci- 
pation  of  slaves. 

The  attack  made  in  defense  of  slavery  upon  the 
rights  of  freemen  was  early  recognized  as  involving 
civil  war  unless  peaceable  emancipation  could  be 
attained.  So  soon  as  John  Quincy  Adams  faced 
the  new  spirit  in  Congress,  he  was  convinced  that 
It  meant  probable  war.    As  early  as  May,  1836,  he 

85 


$^:^' 


86         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

warned  the  South,  suying:  "From  the  instant  that 
your  sluvehoKHng  Stutes  become  the  theater  of  war, 
civil,  serviU',  or  foreign,  from  that  moment  the  war 
powers  of  the  Constitution  exiend  to  interference 
with  the  institution  of  shivery."  This  sentiment 
he  reiterated  and  amph'fied  on  various  occasions. 
The  South  was  duly  warne<l  that  an  attempt  to 
disrupt  the  Union  would  involve  a  war  of  which 
ero-  ncipation  would  be  one  of  the  consequences. 
With  the  exception  of  Garrison  and  a  few  of 
his  personal  followers,  abolitionists  were  union- 
ists: they  stood  for  the  perpetual  union  of  the 
States. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  give  an  extended  account 
of  the  Mexican  War. '  There  are,  however,  certain 
incidents  connected  with  the  annexation  of  Texas 
and  the  resulting  war  which  profoundly  affected 
the  crusade  against  slavery.  Both  Lundy  and 
Birney  in  their  missions  to  promote  emancipation 
through  the  process  of  colonization  believed  that 
they  hau  unearthed  a  plan  on  the  part  of  Southern 
leaders  to  acquire  territory  from  Mexico  for  the 
purpose  of  extending  slavery.  This  discovery 
coincided  with  the  suppression  of  abolition  propa- 
ganda in  the  South.    Hitherto  John  Quincy  Adams 

•  See  Teiw  und  th,-  Mexiran  IJ'ar  (in  Thi  Chronicles  of  America). 


THE  SI^VVERY  ISSUE  IN  POLITICS      h7 

had  fuvoml  tho  wtstrrn  fxpansion  of  our  territory. 
He  L  .1  luhorrd  .lili>.titly  to  nmkr  the  Rio  (JratuK- 
Uie  western  hoiiiKJaty  of  the  Loii.  .ana  Purchase 
at  the  time  of  the  treaty  with  Spain  in  IHIJ).    IJut 
though  in  1H'«  he  had  supjiorted  a  measure  to 
purchase  Texas  from  Mexieo,  under  the  new  eondi- 
tions  he  threw  himself  heartily  against  the  annexa- 
tion of  Texas,  and  in  18;W  he  defeutetl  iij  the  House 
of  Representatives  a  '•esolution  (avormg  annexa- 
tion.    T)  this  end  A<hims  occupied  the  morning 
hour  of  the  House  each  day  from  the  Ifith  of  June 
to  the  7th  of  July,  within  two  days  of  the  time 
fixed  for  adjournment.     This  was  only  a  beginning 
of  his  fight  against  tht  extension  of  slavery.    There 
was  no  relent >ng  in  his  opposition  *o  pro-slavery 
demands  until  he  was  stricken  down  with  paralysis 
in  the  streets  of  Boston,  in  November,  1846.    He 
never  again  addressed  a  public  assembly.     But  he 
continued  to  occupy  his  seat  in  Congress  until 
February  2C,  1848. 

The  debate  inaugurated  in  Congress  by  Adams 
and  others  over  the  extension  of  slave  territory 
rapidly  spread  to  the  country  at  large,  and  inter- 
est in  the  question  became  general.  Abolitionists 
were  thereby  greatly  stimulated  to  put  into  prac- 
tice their  professed  duty  of  seeking  to  accomplish 


«f 


(  ■■ 


li.  > 


k- 


u- 


«  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

their  enijH  by  politicul  uction.    Their  first  effort  was 
to  secure  rec«OKnition  in  the  regular  parties.    The 
Democrats  answered  in  their  platform  of  1840  by 
a  plank  Mpwifically  (JenouneinK  the  abolitionists, 
and    the  Whigs   proved   either   noncommital  or 
unfriendly.     The  result  was  that  abolitionists  or- 
gunized  a  party  of  their  own  in  1840  and  nominated 
James  G.  Birney  for  the  Presidency.    Both  of  tJie 
older  parties  during  this  campaign  evaded  the  issue 
of  the  annexation  of  Texas.     In  1844  the  Whigs 
again  r-frained  from  giving  in  their  platform  any 
official  utterance  on  the  Texas  issue,  though  they 
were  understood   to  be  opposed   to  annexation. 
The  Democrats  adroitly  asserted  in  their  platform 
their  approval  of  the  re-annexation  of  Texas  and  re- 
occupation  of  Oregon.    There  was  a  shadowy  prior 
claim  to  both  these  regions,  and  by  combining 
them  in  this  way  the  party  avoided  any  odious 
partiality  towards  the  acquisition  of  slave  terri- 
tory.    But  the  voteis  in  both  parties  had  become 
interested   in   the  specific  question  whether  the 
country  was  to  enter  upon  a  war  of  conquest  whose 
primary  object  should  be  the  extension  of  slavery. 
In  the  North  it  became  generally  understood  that 
a  vote  for  H<>nry  Clay,  the  Whig  candidate,  was  an 
expression  of  opposition  to  annexation.   This  issue. 


THE  SLAVERY  ISSUE  »N  POLITICS     80 

however,  was  not  uunlv  dear  in  the  South.    In  the 
uksence  of  telfKrapl.  ami  daily  paper  it  wan  quit.- 
possible   to   n.aintain  contnuJictory  iM>.sition8  in 
different  sections  of  th,.  eountry.     But  sinee  the 
Democrats  everywhere  openly  f«von.l  annexation, 
the  election  of  their  candidate.  James  K.  Polk,  was 
generally  aceepttnl  as  a  popular  approval  of  the 
annexation  of  Texas.    Indee<l.  action  immediately 
followed  the  election  and.  before  the  President- 
elect had  been  inaugurated,  the  joint  resolution  for 
the  annexation  of  Texas  passed  both  Houses  of 
Congress. 

The  popular  vote  was  almost  equally  divided 
between  ^Vhigs  and  Democrats.  Had  the  vote 
for  Birney,  who  was  again  the  candidate  of  the 
Liberty  party,  been  cast  for  Clay  electors,  Clay 
ould  have  been  chosen  President.  The  Birney 
vote  was  over  sixty-two  thousand.  Th..  Liberty 
party,  therefore,  held  the  balance  of  power  and 
determined  the  result  of  the  election. 

"''>e  Libeity  party  has  often  been  censured  for 
defeating  the  Whigs  at  this  election  of  1844.  But 
many  incidents,  too  early  forgotten  by  historians, 
go  fur  to  justify  the  course  of  the  leaders.  Birney 
and  Clay  were  at  one  time  members  of  the  same 
party.    They  were  personal  friends,  and  as  slave- 


I 

I' 


X' 


V.W: 


90         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

holders  they  shared  the  view  that  slavery  was  a 
menace  to  the  country  and  ought  to  be  abolished. 
It  wa^  just  fourteen  years  before  this  flection  that 
Birney  made  a  visit  to  Clay  to  induce  him  to 
accept  the  leadership  of  an  organized  movement 
to  abolish  slavery  in  Kentucky.    Three  years  later, 
when  Birney  returned  to  Kentucky  to  do  himself 
what  Henry  Clay  had  refused  to  do,  he  became 
convinced  that  the  reaction  which  had  taken  place 
in  favor  of  slavery  was  largely  due  to  Clay's  in- 
fluence.    This  was  a  common  impression  among 
active  abolitionists.    It  is  not  strange,  therefore, 
that  they  refused  to  support  him  as  a  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  and  it  is  not  at  all  certain  that 
his  election  in  1844  would  have  prevented  the  war 
with  Mexico. 

Northern  Whigs  accused  the  Democrats  of 
fomenting  a  war  with  Mexico  with  the  intention 
of  gaining  territory  for  the  purpose  of  extending 
slavery.  Democrats  denied  that  the  annexation 
of  Texas  would  lead  to  war,  and  many  of  them  pro- 
claimed their  opposition  to  the  farther  extension  of 
slavery.  In  harmony  with  this  sentiment,  when 
President  Polk  asked  for  a  grant  of  two  million 
dollars  to  aid  in  making  a  treaty  with  Mexico,  they 
attached  to  the  bill  granting  the  amount  a  proviso 


THE  SLAVERY  ISSUE  IN  POLITICS      01 

to  the  effect  that  slavery  should  forever  be  pro- 
hibited in  any  territory  which  might  be  obtained 
from  Mexico  by  the  contemplated  treaty.     The 
proviso  was  written  by  an  Ohio  Democrat  and  was 
introduced  in  the  House  by  David  A.  Wilmot,  a 
Pennsylvania  Democrat,  after  whom  it  is  known. 
It  passed  the  House  by  a  fair  majority  with  the 
support  of  both  Whigs  and  Democrats.    At  the 
time  of  the  original  introduction  in  August,  1846, 
the  Senate  did  not  vote  upon  the  measure.    Davis 
of   Massachusetts   moved   its   adoption   but   in- 
advertently prolonged  his  speech  in  its  favor  until 
the  hour  for  adjournment.    Hence  there  was  no 
vote  on  the  subject.     Subsequently  the  proviso 
in  a  new  form  again  passed  the  House  but  failed 
of  adoption  in  the  Senate. 

During  the  war  the  Wilmot  Proviso  was  the 
subject  of  frequent  debate  in  Congress  and  of  con- 
tinuous debate  throughout  the  country  until  the 
treaty  with  Mexico  was  signed  in  1848.  A  vast 
territory  had  been  acquired  as  a  result  of  the  war, 
and  no  decision  had  been  reached  as  to  whether  it 
should  remain  free  or  be  opened  to  settlement  by 
slave-owners.  Another  presidential  election  was 
at  hand.  For  fully  ten  years  there  had  been  ever- 
incrcsing  excitement  over  the  question  of  the 


!!' 


92  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

limitation   or   the    extension    of   slavery.    This 
had  clearly  become  the  topic  of  supreme  interest 
throughout  the  country,  and  yet  the  two  leading 
parties  avoided  the  issue.    Their  own  membership 
was  divided.    Northern  Democrats,  many  of  them, 
were    decidedly    opposed    to    slavery    extension. 
Southern  Whigs  with  equal  intensity  favored  the 
extension  of  slavery  into  the  new  territory.    The 
platforms  of  the  two  parties  were  silent  on  the 
subject.    The  Whigs  nominated  Taylor,  a  South- 
ern general   who  had   never  voted   their  party 
ticket,  but  they  made  no  formal  declaration  of 
principles.    The  Democrats  repeated  with  colorless 
additions  their  platform.,  of  1840  and  1844  and 
sought  to  win  the  election  with  a  Northern  man, 
Lewis  Cass  of  Michigan,  as  candidate. 

There  was,  therefore,  a  clear  field  for  a  party 
having  fully  defined  views  to  express  on  a  topic  of 
commanding  interest.  The  cleavage  in  the  Demo- 
cratic party  already  begun  by  the  debate  o\  er  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  was  farther  promoted  by  a  fac- 
tional division  of  New  York  Democrats.  Martin 
Van  Buren  became  the  leader  of  the  liberal  faction, 
the  *' Barnburners, "  who  nominated  him  for  Presi- 
dent at  a  convention  at  Utica.  The  spirit  of  in- 
dependence  now   seized   disaffected   WTiigs   and 


THE  SLAVERY  ISSUE  IN  POLITICS      93 

Democrats  everywhere  in  the  North  and  North- 
west.   Men  of  anti-slavery  prochvities  held  non- 
partizan  meetings  and  conventions.     The  move- 
ment finally  culminated  in  the  famous  Buffalo 
convention  which  gave  birth  to  the  Free-soil  party. 
The  delegates  of  all  political  persu  sions  united 
on  the  one  principle  of  opposition  to  slavery.    They 
adopted  a  ringing  platform  closing  with  the  words: 
''Unsolved,  That  we  inscribe  on  our  banner  'Free 
Soil,  Free  Speech,  Free  Labor,  and  Free  Men,'  and 
under  it  will  fight  on,  and  fight  ever,  until  a  trium- 
phant victory  shall  reward  our  exertions."     They 
accepted  Van  Buren  as  their  candidate.    The  vote 
at  the  ensuing  election  was  more  than  fourfold  that 
given  to  Birney  in  1844.     The  Van  Buren  support- 
ers held  the  balance  of  power  between  Whigs  and 
Democrats  in  twelve  States.    Taylor  was  elected 
by  the  vote  of  New  York,  which  except  for  the 
division  in  the  party  would  have  gone  to  Cass. 
There  was  no  longer  any  doubt  of  the  fact  that  a 
political  force  had  arisen  which  could  no  longer  be 
ignored  by  the  ruling  parties.    One  of  the  parties 
must  either  support  the  new  issue  or  give  place 
to  a  party  which  would  do  so. 

A  political  party  for  the  defense  of  liberty  was 
the  fulfillment  of  the  aspirations  of  all  earnest 


u 


\fi 


*  ;   I 


94  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

anti-slavery  men  and  of  all  abolitionists  not  of  the 
radical  Garrisonian  persuasion.   The  national  anti- 
slavery  societies  were  for  the  most  part  limited  in 
their  operations  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard.     The 
West  organized  local  and  state  associations  with 
little  reference  to  the  national  association.    When 
the  disruption  occurred  between  Garrison  and  his 
opponents  in  1840,  the  Western  abolitionists  con- 
tinued their  former  methods  of  local  organization. 
They  recognized  no  divisions  in  their  ranks  and 
continued  to  work  in  harmony  with  all  who  in  any 
way  opposed  the  institution  of  slavery.    The  polit- 
ical party  was  their  first  really  effective  national 
organization.     Through  party  committees,  cau- 
cuses, and  conventions,  they  became  a  part  of  the 
forces  that  controlled  the  nation.    The  older  local 
clubs  and  associations  were  either  displaced  by  the 
party  or  became  mere  adjuncts  to  the  party. 

The  lines  for  po'-  leal  action  were  now  clearly 
defined.  In  t'  States  emancipation  should  be 
accomplished  by  state  action.  With  a  few  in- 
dividual exceptions  the  leaders  conceded  that  Con- 
gress had  no  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States. 
Upon  the  general  Government  they  urged  the  duty 
of  abolishing  both  slavery  and  the  s^ave-trade  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  and  in  all  areas  under 


THE  SLAVERY  ISSUE  IN  POLITICS  95 
direct  federal  control.  They  further  urged  upon 
the  Government  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  laws 
prohibiting  the  foreign  slave-trade  and  the  enact- 
ment of  laws  forbidding  the  interstate  slave-trade. 
The  constitutionality  of  these  main  lines  of  action 
has  been  generally  conceded. 

Abolitionists  were  pioneers  in  the  formulation  of 
political  platforms.    The  declaration  of  principles 
drawn  up  by  Garrison  in  1833  and  adopted  by  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  of  the  nature 
of  a  political  platform.     The  duty  of  voting  in 
furtherance  of  the  policy  of  emancipation  was  in- 
culcated.     No  platform  was  adopted  for  the  first 
political  campaign,  that  of  1840;  but  four  years 
later  there  was  an  elaborate  party  platform  of 
twenty-one  resolutions.     Many  things  had  hap- 
pened in  the  eleven  years  intervening  since  the 
declaration  of  principles  of  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society.    In  the  earlier  platform  the  free- 
dom of  the  slave  appears  as  the  primary  object. 
That  of  the  Liberty  party  assumes  the  broad  prin- 
ciple of  human  brotherhood  as  the  foundation  for  a 
democracy  or  a  republic.    It  denies  that  the  party 
is  organized  merely  to  free  the  slave.    Slaveholding 
as  the  grossest  form  of  despotism  must  indeed  be 
attacked  first,  but  the  aim  of  the  party  is  to  carr;y 


H 


m 


96  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

the  principle  of  equal  rights  into  all  social  relations. 
It  is  not  a  sectional  party  nor  a  party  organized 
for  a  single  purpose.     "  It  is  not  a  new  party,  nor  a 
third  party,  but  it  is  the  party  of  177G.  reviving 
the  principles  of  that  memorable  era,  and  striving 
to  carry  them  into  practical  application."    The 
spirit  of  '76  rings,  indeed,  throughout  the  docu- 
ment, which  declares  that  it  was  understood  at  the 
time  of  the  Declaration  and  the  Constitution  that 
the  existence  of  slavery  was  in  derogation  of  the 
principles  of  American  liberty.    The  implied  faith 
of  the  Nation   and   the   States   was   pledged   to 
remove  this  stain  upon  the   national  character. 
Some  States  had  nobly  fulfilled  that  pledge;  others 
shamelessly  had  neglected  to  do  so. 

These  principles  are  reasserted  in  succeeding 
platforms.    The  later  opponents  of  slavery  in  their 
principles  and  policies  thus  allied  themselves  with 
the  founders  of  the  republic.     They  claimed  the 
right  to  continue  to  repeat  the  words  of  Washing- 
ton and  Jefferson  and  those  of  the  members  of  the 
Virginia  Legislature  of  1832.     No  new  doctrines 
were  required.     It  was  enough  simply  to  reaffirm 
the  fundamental  principles  of  democracy. 

The  names  attached  to  the  party  are  significant. 
It  was  at  first  popularly  styled  the  Abolition  party. 


THE  SLAVERY  ISSUE  IN  POLITICS      07 

then  officially  in  turn  the  Liberty  party,  the  Free- 
soil  party,  and  finally  the  Republican  party.    Re- 
publican  was  the  name  first  applied  to  the  Demo- 
cratic party -the  party  of  Jefferson.     The  term 
Democrat  was  gradually  substituted  under  the 
leadership  of  Jackson  before  1830.    Some  of  the 
men  who  participated  in  the  organizaiion  of  the 
later  Republican  party  had  themselves  been  Re- 
publicans  in  the  party  of  Jefferson.  They  not  only 
accepted  the  name  which  Jefferson  gave  to  his 
party,  but  they  adopted  the  principles  which  Jef- 
ferson proclaimed  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  free 
soil,  and  human  rights  in  general.    This  was  the 
final  stage  in  the  identification  of  the  later  anti- 
slavery  crusade  with  the  earlier  contest  for  liberty 


\i: 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   PASSING  OP   THE  WHIG   PARTY 

The  middle  of  the  last  century  was  marked  by 
many  incidents  which  have  left  a  permanent  im- 
press upon  politics  in  general  and  upon  the  slavery 
question  in  particular.   Europe  was  again  in  the 
throes  of  popular  uprisings.     New  constitutions 
were  adopted  in  France.  Switzerland.  Prussia,  and 
Austria.  Reactions  in  favor  of  autocracy  in  Austria 
and  Germany  sent  multitudes  of  lovers  of  liberty 
to  America.    Kossuth,  the  Hungarian  revolution- 
ist, electrified  American  audiences  by  his  appeals 
on  behalf  of  the  downtrodden  in  Europe.    Already 
the  world  was  growing  smaller.    America  did  not 
stop  at  the  Pacific  but  crossed  the  ocean  to  es- 
tablish permanent  political  and  commercial  rela- 
tions with  Japan  and  China. 

The  industries  of  the  country  were  being  reor- 
ganized to  meet  new  conditions  created  by  recent 
inventions.   The  electric  telegraph  was  just  coming 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY    99 

into  use.  giving  rise  to  a  now  era  in  communication. 
The  discoverj-  of  gold  in  California  in  1848  was 
followed  by  competing  projects  to  construct  rail- 
roads  to  the  Pacific  with  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  as 
the  rival  eastern  terminals.     The  telegraph,  the 
railway,  and  the  resulting  industrial  development 
proved  great  nationalizing  influences.   They  served 
also  to  give  increased  emphasis  to  the  contrast  be- 
tween  the  industries  of  the  free  and  those  of  the 
slave  States.    The  Census  of  1850  became  an  effec- 
tive anti-slavery  argument. 

The  telegraph  also  gave  new  life  to  the  public 
press.    The  presidential  campaign  of  1848  was  the 
last  one  m  which  it  was  possible  to  carrv  on  con- 
tradictory  arguments  in  support  of  the  same  can- 
didate.   If  slavery  could  not  endure  the  test  of 
untrammeled  discussion  when  there  were  no  means 
of  rapid  intercommunication  such  as  the  telegraph 
supplied,  how  could  it  contend  against  the  revela- 
tions of  the  daily  press  with  the  new  type  of  re- 
porter and  interviewer  which  was  now  developed? 
It  IS  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  in  the  midst 
of  the  passing  of  the  old  and  the  coming  in  of  the 
new  order  there  should  be  a  change  in  the  political 
leadership  of  the  country.    Webster.  Clay.  Cal- 
houn. John  Quincy  Adams,  not  to  mention  others 


I 


If    I 


M 


100        THE  ANT'-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

all  died  near  the  middle  of  the  century,  and  their 
political  power  passed  to  younger  men.  Adams 
gave  his  blessing  to  a  young  friend  and  colaborer, 
William  H.  Seward  of  New  York,  intimating  that 
he  expected  him  to  do  much  to  curb  the  threaten- 
ing power  of  the  slaveholding  oligarchy;  while 
Andrew  Jackson,  who  diwl  earlier,  had  already 
conferred  a  like  distinction  upon  young  Stephen  A. 
Douglas.  There  was  no  lack  of  aspirants  for  the 
fallen  mantlej. 

John  C.  Calhoun  continued  almost  to  the  day  of 
his  death  to  modify  his  interpretation  of  the  Con- 
stitution in  the  interest  of  his  section.    As  a  young 
man  he  avowed  protectionist  principles.   Becoming 
convinced  that  slave  labor  was  not  suited  to  manu- 
facture, he  declared  himself  prepared  to  dissolve 
the  Union  rather  than  submit  to  a  protective  tariff. 
When  his  section  seemed  endangered  by  the  dis- 
tribution of  anti-slavery  literature  through  the 
mail,  he  extemporized  a  theory  that  each  State 
had  a  right  to  pass  statutes  to  protect  itself  in  such 
an  emergency,  in  which  case  it  became  the  duty 
of  the  general  Government  and  of  all  other  States 
to  respect  such  laws.     When  it  finally  appeared 
that  the  territory  acquired  from  Mexico  was  likely 
to  remain  free,  the  same  statesman  made  further 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY  101 

discoveries.    He  tomul  that  Con^res.  hucJ  no  right 
to  exclude  .hivery  fron.  any  Territory  belonginK  to 
the  United  States;  that  the  owners  of  slaves  had 
equal  rights  with  the  owners  of  other  property 
that  neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  authority 
had  any  power  to  ...elude  slaves  fr.n.  a  Territory. 
This  do<.tnne  was  accepted  by  extremists  in  Uie 
^outh  and  was  finally  embodied  in  the  Dred  x-ott 
dcc'sion  of  1857. 

Abolitionists  had  meantime  evolved  a  prwisely 
contradictory  theory.    They  asserted  that  the  Con- 
stitution  gave  no  warrant  for  property  in  man. 
except  as  held  under  staf.  laws;   that  with  this 
exception  freedom  was  guaranteed  to  all ;  that  Con- 
gress had  no  more  right  to  make  a  slave  than  it  had 
to  make  a  king;  and  that  it  was  the  dutv  of  Con- 
gress to  maintain  freedom  in  all  the  Territories 
Extremists  expressed  the  view  that  all  past  acts 
whereby  slavery  had  been  extended  were  uncon- 
stitutional  and    therefor,   void.     Between    these 
extreme  conflicting  views  was  every  imaginable 
grade  of  opinion.     The  prevailing  view    of  op- 
ponents of  slavery,  however,  was  in  harmonv  with 
their  past  conduct  and  maintained  that  Co'ngress 
had  complete  control  over  slavery  in  the  Territories 
When    the   Mexican    territory    was    acquired 


,!' 


•> 


It,     f 


' . » 


•  H 


f 


IW        THE  ANTI-SLAVERV  CRUSADE 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  us  the  experienced  chairman 
of  Uie  Committee  on  Territories  in  the  Senate,  was 
already  developing  a  tlieory  respecting  .slavery  in 
the  Territories  w'  a  wu.s  destini'd  to  play  a  lead- 
mg  part   in  later  crusade  against   slavery. 

Douglas  was  the  n)ost  thorough -going  of  expan- 
sionists   and    would    acknowledge    no    northern 
boundary  on  this  side  of  the  North  Pole,  no  south- 
em  boundary  nearer  than  Panama.    He  regarded 
the  United  States,  with  its  great  principle  of  local 
autonomy,  as  fitted   to   become  eventually  the 
United  States  of  the  whole  world,  while  he  held  it 
to  be  an  immediate  duty  to  make  it  the  United 
States  of  North  America.    As  the  son-in-law  of  a 
Southern  planter  in  North  Carolina,  and  as  the 
father  of  sons  who  inherited  slave  property,  Doug- 
las, although  born  in  Vermont,  knew  the  South  as 
did  no  other  Northern  statesman.    He  knew  also 
the  institution  of  slavery  at  first  hand.    As  a  pro- 
nounced expansionist    ar.d   as  the  congressional 
leader  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  Territories, 
he  acquired  detailed  information  as  to  the  qualities 
of  these  new  possessions,  and  he  spoke,  therefore, 
with  a  good  degree  of  authority  when  he  said,  "If 
there  was  one  inch  of  territory  in  the  whole  of  our 
acquisitions  from  Mexico  where  slavery  could  exist, 


O 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY  103 

it  wus  in  the  vallvys  of  the  Sufruinontr)  ami  the 
Sun  Jouquin."  But  this  rt-Kion  was  at  oiur  pre- 
iinptfd  for  frt'filom  upon  tht-  di.scov.-ry  of  ^oKl. 

Doughis  did  not  admit  that  vwn  tho  wholi-  of 
Texas  wou.d  remain  (h'llicated  'o  shivery.    Some 
of  the  States  to  he  formetj  from  it  would  he  free, 
hy  the  same  hiws  of  ehmate  ami  resources  whieh 
•leterminwl  t....t  the  entire  We.st  would  remain  free. 
Hefore  the  Mexican  War  the  Senator  had  hmmie 
convinced  that  the  extension  of  shivery  had  reached 
its  limit;  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  a 
dead  letter  except  as  a  psychological  palliative; 
that  Nature  had  already  ordained  that  slave  labor 
should  be  forever  excluded  from  all  Western  terri- 
tory both  north  and  south  of  that  line.    His  reply 
to  Calhoun's  contention  that  a  balance  must  be 
maintained  between  slave  and  free  States  was  that 
he  had  plans  for  forming  seventeen  new  States  out 
of  the  vast  Western  domains,  every  one  of  which 
would  be  free.    And  besides,  said  he,  "we  all  look 
forward  with  confidenc*   to  the  time  when  Dela- 
ware, Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri, 
find  probably  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee  will 
adopt  a  gradual  system  of  emancipation."    Doug- 
las was  one  of  the  first  to  favor  the  admission 
of  California  as  a  free  State.     According  to  the 


I 


:Ml 


*l 


If 


i'' 


■/v 


i,    '  nf 
t 

I 


) 


I 


I 


104        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

Missouri  Compromise  law  and  the  laws  of  Mexico, 
ail  Western  territory  was  free,  and  he  was  opposed 
to  interference  with  existing  conditions.   The  Mis- 
souri Compromise  was  still  held  sacred.    Finally, 
however,  it  was  with  Douglas's  assistance  that  the 
Compromise  measures  of  1850  were  passed,  one 
of  which  provided  for  territorial  Governments  for 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  with  the  proviso  that,  when 
admitted  as  States,  slavery  should  be  permitted 
or  prohibited  as  the  citizens  of  those  States  should 
determine  at  the  time.     Congress  refrained  from 
any  declaration  as  to  slavery  in  the  Territories.    It 
was  this  policy  of  "non-intervention"  which  four 
years  later  furnished  plausible  excuse  for  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

It  was  not  strange  that  there  was  general  ignor- 
ance in  all  parts  of  the  country  as  to  the  resources 
of  the  newly  acquired  territory.  The  rush  to  the 
goldfields  precipitated  action  in  respect  to  Cali- 
fornia. Before  General  Taylor,  the  newly  elected 
President,  was  inaugurated,  there  was  imminent 
need  of  an  efficient  government.  An  early  act  of 
the  Administration  was  to  send  an  agent  to  assist 
in  the  formation  of  a  state  Government,  and  a  con- 
vention was  immediately  called  to  frame  a  con- 
stitution.    By  unanimous  vote  of  the  convention, 


1 

1 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY  105 

slavery  was  excluded.    The  constitution  was  ap- 
proved by  popular  vote   and    was    presented   to 
Congress  for  final  acceptance  in  December,  1849. 
In  the  meantime  a  great  commotion  had  arisen 
among   the   people.      Pouliur"    state   legislatures 
passed  resolutions  droiandiniL'  thai   the  rights  of 
their   peculiar   instit-Tion    .«,houK'    be   recognized 
in  the  new  Territory.     iNoniicra  legislatures  re- 
sponded with  resolutions  favoring  the  admission  of 
California  as  a  State  and  the  application  of  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  to  the  remaining  territory.   North- 
ern Democrats  had  very  generally  denied  that  the 
affair  with  Mexico  had  as  a  chief  purpose  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery.     Democrats  therefore  united 
with  Whigs  in  maintaining  the  principle  of  free 
soil.     In  the  South  there  was  a  corresponding  fu- 
sion of  the  two  i)arties  in  support  of  the  sectional 
issue. 

General  concern  prevailed  as  to  the  attitude  of  the 
Administration.  Taylor's  election  had  been  effect- 
ed by  both  a  Southern  and  a  Northern  split  in  the 
Democratic  party.  Northern  Democrats  had  voted 
for  the  Free-soil  candidate  because  of  the  alleged 
pro-slavery  tendencies  of  their  own  party.  South- 
ern Democrats  voted  for  Taylor  because  of  their 
distrust  of  Lewis  Cass,  their  own  candidate.    Some 


k?' 


ii 


^1^ 


n 


m 


■>    I: 


! 

1  ;i 


106        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
of  these  met  in  convention  and  formally  nominated 
Taylor,  and  Taylor  accepted  their  nomination  with 
thanks.    Northern  anti-slavery  Whigs  had  a  di£5. 
cult  task  to  keep  their  members  in  line.    There  is 
evidence  that  Taylor  held  the  traditional  Southern 
view  that  the  anti-slavery  North  was  disposed  to 
encroach  upon  the  rights  of  the  South.    Meeting 
fewer  Northern  Whig  supporters,  he  became  con- 
vmced  that  the  more  active  spirit  of  encroachment 
was  m  the  pro-slavery  South.    California  needed  a 
state  Government,  and  the  President  took  the  most 
direct  method  to  supply  that  need.     As  the  in- 
habitants were  unanimous  in  their  desire  to  exclude 
slavery,    their   wish   should    be    respected    New 
Mexico  was  in  a  similar  situation.    As  slavery  was 
already  excluded  from  the  territory  under  Mexican 
law,  and  as  there  was  no  wish  on  the  part  of  the 
inhabitants   to  introduce  slavery,   the  President 
recognized   existing  facts  and  made  no  change. 
When   Southern   leaders  projected   a  scheme   to 
enlarge  the  boundaries  of  Texas  so  as  to  extend 
slavery  over  a  large  part  of  New  Mexico,  President 
Taylor  set  a  guard  of  United  States  troops  to  main- 
tain the  mtegrity  of  the  Territory.    When  a  depu- 
tation of  Southern  Whigs  endeavored  to  dissuade 
him  from  his  purpose,  threatening  a  dissolution  of 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY  107 

the  Union  and  intimating  that  urniy  officers  would 
refuse  to  act  against  citizens  of  Texas,  the  soldier 
President  replie.i  that  in  such  an  event  he  would 
take  command  in  person  and  would  hang  any  one 
caught  in  acts  of  treason.    When  Henry  Clay  in- 
troduced an  elaborate  project  for  a  compromise 
between  the  North  and  the  South,  the  President 
insisted  that  each  question  should  be  settled  on  its 
own  merits  and  directed  the  forces  of  the  Adminis- 
tration against  any  sort  of  compromise.    The  de- 
bate over  Clay's  Omnibus  Bill  was  long  and  acri- 
monious.   On  July  4,  1850,  the  President  seemed 
triumphant.    But  upon  that  day,  notwithstanding 
his  apparent  robust  health,  he  was  stricken  down 
with  an  acute  disease  and  died  fi\'e  days  later. 
With  his  passing,  the  opposing  W^hig  faction  came 
into  power.     The  so-called  compromise  measures 
were  at  length  one  bv  one  passed  by  Congress  and 
approved  by  Presi  "llmore. 

California  was  adr.  ■  ,^cd  as  a  free  State;  but  as  a 
palliative  to  the  South,  Congress  passed  bills  for  the 
organizi.  ion  of  territorial  Governments  for  New 
Mexico  and  Utah  without  positive  declarations  re- 
garding the  powers  of  the  territorial  Legislatures 
over  slavery.  All  questions  relating  to  title  to 
slaves  were  to  be  left    .  the  courts.    Meantime  it 


I 


i^.l 


108 


\(\ 


.1  (/ 


i  f 


THE  ANTI-SLA;1ERY  CRUSADE 


was  left  in  doubt  whether  Mexican  law  excluding 
slavery  was  still  in  force.     Southern  naalcontent! 
ma.nta.ned  that  this  act  was  a  mere  hoax,  using 
words  which  suggested  concession  when  no  con- 
cession was  intended.    Northern  anti-slavery  n.en 
cnfczea  the  act  as  the  entering  wedge  for  another 
grer.t  surrender  to  the  encny.    Because  of  the  un- 
certainty regarding  the  meaning  of  the  law  and  the 
alse  hopes  likely  to  he  created,  they  maintained 
hat  It  was  fitted  to  foment  discord  and  prolong 
the  penod  of  distrust  between  the  two  sections 
At  ail  events  such  was  its  actual  effect. 

A  third  act  in  this  unhappy  series  gave  to  Texas 
ten  milhons  of  dollars  for  the  alleged  surrender  of 
claims  to  a  part  of  New  Mexico.    This  had  little 
bearing  on  the  general  subject  of  compromise;  yet 
anti-slavery  men  criticized  it  on  the  ground  that 
the  issue  raised  was  insincere;  that  the  appropria- 
tion  was  m  fact  a  bribe  to  secure  votes  necessary 
to  pass  .  ^e  other  measures;  that  the  bill  was  passed 
through  Congress  by  shameless  bribery,  and  that 
even  the  boundaries  conceded  to  Texas  involved 
the  surrender  of  free  territory. 

The  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  was  supported  by  both  sections  of  the 
countiy.     The  removal  of  the  slave  pens  within 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY  109 

sight  <  -f  the  Capitol  to  a  neighboring  city  deprived 
the  abolitionists  of  one  of  their  weapons  for  effec- 
tive agitation,  but  it  did  not  otherwise  affect  the 
position  of  slavery. 

Of  the  five  acts  included  in  the  compromise 
measures,  the  one  which  provided  for  the  return  of 
fugitive  slaves  was  most  effective  in  the  promotion 
of  hostility  between  the  two  sections.    During  the 
six  months  of  debate  on  the  Omnibus  Bill,  numer- 
ous bills  were  presented  to  take  the  place  of  the 
law  of  1793.    Webster  brought  forward  a  bill  which 
provided  for  the  use  of  a  jury  to  establish  the  valid- 
ity of  a  claim  to  an  escaped  slave.    But  that  which 
was  finally  adopted  by  a  worn-out  Congress  is 
characterized  as  one  of  the  most  barbarous  pieces 
of  legislation  ever  enacted  by  a  civilized  country. 
A  single  incident  may  indicate  the  nature  of  the 
act.    James  Hamlet,  for  three  years  a  resident  of 
New  York  City,  a  husband  and  a  father  and  a 
member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  was  seized  eight 
days  after  the  law  wenc  into  effect  by  order  of  the 
agent  of  Mary  Brown  of  Baltimore,  cut  off  from 
all  communication  with  his  friends,  hurried  before 
a  commissioner,  and  on  ex  parte  testimony  was  de- 
livered into  the  hands  of  the  agent,  by  whom  he 
was  handcuffed  and  secretly  conveyed  to  Baltimore. 


if 


'  lii 


fl 


f  ^ 


:M 


110        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

Mr.  Rhodes  accounts  for  the  enactment  in  the 
following  words;  "If  we  look  below  the  surface  we 
shall  find  a  strong  impelling  motive  of  the  South- 
em  clamor  for  this  harsh  enactment  other  than  the 
natural  desire  to  recover  lost  property.    Early  in 
the  session  it  took  air  that  a  part  of  the  game  of  the 
disun.on.sts  was  to  pr-ss  a  stringent  fugitive  slave 
law.  for  which  no  Northern  man  could  vote;  and 
when  .t  was  defeated,  the  North  would  be  charged 
w.th  refusal  to  carry  out  a  stipulation  of  the  Con- 
sUtution.  ...    The  admission  of  California  was 
a  b.tter  pill  for  the  Southern  ultras,  but  they  were 
forced  to  take  it.    The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  a 
taunt  ana  a  reproach  to  that  part  of  the  North 
where  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  ruled  supremely 
and  was  deemed  a  partial  compensation."    Clay 
expressed  surprise  that  States  from  which  few 
slaves  escaped  demanded  a  more  stringent  law 
than  Kentucky,  from  which  many  escaped. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  motives  leading  to 
the  enactment,  its  immediate  effect  was  the  elimi- 
nation  of  one  of  the  great  national  parties,  thus 
pav.ng  the  way  for  the  formation  of  parties  along 
sectional  lines.  Two  years  after  the  passage  of  the 
compromise  acts  the  Democratic  national  conven- 
tion assembled  to  nominate  a  candidate  for  the 


U. 


tr 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY  111 

Presidency.  The  platform  adopted  by  the  party 
promised  a  faithful  execution  of  the  acts  known 
as  the  compromise  measures  and  added  "the  act 
for  reclaiming  fugitives  from  service  or  labor  in- 
cluded; which  act,  being  designed  to  carry  out  an 
express  provision  of  the  Constitution,  cannot,  with 
fidelity  thereto,  be  repealed  nor  so  changed  as  to 
destroy  or  impair  its  efficiency."  When  this  was 
read,  the  convention  broke  out  in  uproarious  ap- 
plause. Then  there  was  a  demand  that  it  should 
be  read  again.  Again  there  was  loud  applause. 
Why  was  there  this  demand  that  a  law  which  every 
one  knew  had  proved  a  complete  failure  should  be 
made  a  permanent  part  of  the  Constitution.'  And 
why  the  ungovernable  hilarity  over  the  demand 
that  its  "efficiency"  should  never  be  impaired? 
Surely  the  motive  was  something  other  than  a 
desire  to  recover  lost  property.  Upon  the  Whig 
party  had  been  fastened  the  odium  for  the  enact- 
ment of  the  law,  and  the  act  unrepealed  meant  the 
death  of  the  party.  The  Democrats  saw  good 
reason  for  laughter. 


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.1 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   UNDERGROUND   RAILROAD 

Wherever  there  are  slaves  there  are  fugitives  it 
there  ,s  an  available  place  of  refuse      Thl      u 
of  Florida  were  such  a  refuge  ZinJite       f' 
part  of  last  centurv     Wh      fi!   x^   ^    ^  ^^""'^ 
became   free    fu"  r     ^       ^"  ^"''^^™  States 

liberty  JI'  '       "'  "'""='  ^""'^  -«' 

A  professed  obiect  nt  th  i 

ne^s  a^d;„othe,wa.v.  to  protect  ;:;r 

;P.>Hed„fftotheSoutha„.:':l~-7 
various  places  along  the  border  there  were  ,h„ 

Jr^^r;;'  ""'  ""'  '"  --«  'he  nZlt 
groes  and  to  prevent  kidnaDninir     tk 

■•-  o,  the  Border  .r^7.J^Ct 


1',' 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      113 

development  of  what  was  later  known  as  the  Un- 
derground Railroad. 

In  1796  President  Washington  wrote  a  letter  to 
a  friend  in  New  Hampshire  with   reference  to 
obtaining  the  return  of  a  negro  servant.    He  was 
careful  to  state  that  the  servant  should  remain  un- 
molested rather  than  "excite  a  mob  or  riot  or  even 
uneasy  sensations  in  th<     ninds  of  well  disposed 
citizens."     The  result  w       ihat  the  servant  re- 
mained free.    President  Washington  here  assumed 
that  "well  disposed  citizens"  would  oppose  h?r 
return  to  slavery.     Three  years  earlier  the  Presi- 
dent h.         .iself  signed  a  bill  to  facilitate  by  legal 
process  the  return  of  fugitives  escaping  into  other 
States.    He  was  certainly  aware  that  such  an  act 
was  on  the  statute  books  when  he  wrote  his  re- 
quest to  his  friend  in  New  Hampshire,  yet  he 
expected  that,  if  an  attempt  were  made  to  re- 
move the  refugee  by  force,  riot  and  resistance  by 
a  mob  would  be  the  result. 

Not  until  after  the  foreign  slave-trade  had  been 
prohibited  and  the  dome  tic  trade  had  been  de- 
veloped, and  not  until  there  was  a  pro-slavery  re- 
action in  the  South  which  banisned  from  the  slave 
States  all  anti-slavery  propaganda,  did  the  system- 
atic assistance  rendered  to  fugitive  slaves  assume 


I" 


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"*        THEANTl-SLAVERYCRUriDE 

any  large  proportions  or  arouse  bitter  resentm     ♦ 

couraged  and  stimulated  bv  tho         !  ^    °' 

law  of  1850  ^        enactment  of  the 

W-  proportion  confined  their  acUv  ieHot'   ! 
Incidents  vi'.Trn  from  *»,«>      •• 

Coffin,  the  r.,zzZ^T::r  °'  "*"■ 

growth  of  the  system      H  "*'"  ""• 

wHenhefir.»:re::,,L:;nZ:hr,°"* 

"  ^"^o'  ^>-es  being  drive      olf^:;; 
market  h,  a  n.an  on  horseback  with  a  o^/i™ 

''rr.::r:rs^er^''^' - 

-thena3.ed..We„,C;:i;'rC:t 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      115 

you?'    One  of  tht-  men  whose  countenc    ee  be- 
trayed unusual  intelligence  and  whose  expression 
di-noted  the  deepest  sadness  reph'ed:  'They  have 
taken  us  from  our  wives  and  chihlren  and  they 
chain  us  U\st  we  shouhl  make  our  escape  and  go 
back  to  ♦hem.' "     When  Coffin  was  fifteen,  he  ren- 
dered assistance  to  a  man  in  bondage.    Having  an 
opportunity  to  talk  with  the  meml)ers  of  a  gang 
in  the  hands  of  a  trader  bound  for  the  Southern 
market,   he  learned   that  one  of  the  company, 
named  Stephen,  was  a  freeman  who  had  been  kid- 
napped and  sold.    Letters  were  written  to  North- 
em  friends  of  Stephen  who  confirmed  his  assertion. 
Money  was  raised  in  the  Quaker  meeting  and  men 
were  sent  to  recover  the  negro.   Stephen  was  found 
in  Georgia  and  after  six  months  was  liberated. 

During  the  year  Wil  other  incidents  occurred 
in  the  Quaker  community  at  New  Garden,  near 
Greensboro,  North  Carolina,  which  illustrate  dif- 
ferent phases  of  the  subject.  Jack  Barnes  was 
the  slave  of  a  bachelor  who  became  so  greatly  at- 
tachetl  to  his  servant  that  he  bequeathed  to  him 
not  only  his  freedom  but  also  a  large  share  of  his 
property.  Relatives  instituted  measures  to  break 
the  will,  and  Jack  in  alarm  took  refuge  among  the 
Quakers  at  New  Garden.    The  suit  went  against 


I 


f  •  t 

/ 


i, 

1 

ii 

i: 


2       ™«  ^''"-SUVERV  CRUSADE 

-'■■on  which  :z:,  ^:tf„  r "-" '»'  '^- 

prevent  hi,  return  to  b^  .  ■  '  '""""'y-  To 
'»ck»hou,Uj„i;°,5«-;^-.l™Viedthat 
"■oving  to  Indiana,  *"'  "'«'  »"« 

At  the  same  time  a  neitro  bv  .1, 

i-d  for  several  month,  braW  „    "'?  "'  ^'"" 

""ghborhood.    Hebell      .* '"""■'*"*" 

P™«o..peo,Simf:,^™«;^.';  "  «'•  ""-ne,  a 

cruel  that  other  slave  ,  ■™  ""'""ously 

l."  victim,.   ;;  rX  c  r  °"'"""' '"  "  ' 

O"  the  road  for  a  r,,„'^:f  ;;•;''''  'r''' '""'  ■-- 
negro  .a,  with  th  m    Id  ,    ,  '"™"'  ">"' » 

!■«  Sam,  he  ,t„rtedT„ I;.      "'^  '""'  "■"' ''  '-'" 
beoomi„,,„„J„^;;'';,^- ••;''- them.    This 

"«»  sent  after  (feb„rne  ,    ,        ^     "« ''"•'  Coffin 

do,eriptio„,«i.c„     Xrj^r''""  "'-'"■    The 
Wentical  and  it  „.„,  '^""■""^"■Pr-'^^fcaHy 

shouldoverta;  th  p  r:":::'^'  *"  «»"»"■' 
he  would  .,e^^e  Jackf^    t,    '''r'"'"'""^"'''^. 

reward.    Coffin  ''''  "^<'  °'  ">e  offered 

decided  to  M :  h"  h7:; ""  "■"'  ^"--^  -■' 

P'--    In  the  e„:       '  Tj"  "  "^  '»  '-n  hi, 
finally  agreed  that  Coffi     T  T""'"""'-"'  "  ''a, 

-e^ofsam:'ib:^:t:':;r''-''-e- 

"e  was  also  generous  and 


\ 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      117 

insisted  that  if  it  provinl  to  Ko  thr  other  ••iiigKer" 
who  was  witli  the  roinpan.N .  Cotrin  shoiihl  have 
half  the  rewani.  IIow  the  y.Mit.K  Quaker  out- 
wittfd  the  tyrant,  gained  his  iK.int,  .sent  Jack  on 
his  way  to  hherty.  and  at  t!.e  .same  time  retained 
the  confidenee  of  O.shorrie  m.  that  ijpon  their  return 
home  he  wa.s  definitely  .nKaK.-.l  to  a.ssi.st  O.shorne 
in  findi.ig  Sam,  is  a  fa.scinating  .story.  The  aho- 
htionist  won  from  the  shivehohh'r  the  doubtful 
compliment  that    'there  was  not  a  num  in  that 

neighhorhtMxl  worth  a  d n  to  help  him  hunt  his 

negro  except  young  Levi  Coffin." 

Sam  wa.s  perfectly  .safe  .so  long  a.s  Levi  Coffin 
was  guide  for  the  hunting-party,  hut  matters  were 
beconung  desperate.     For  the  fugitive  something 
had  to  he  (Jone.    Another  family  was  planning  to 
move  to  Indiana,  and  in  their  wagon  Sam  was  to  he 
concealed  and  thus  conveyed  to  a  free  State.     'J'he 
business  luid  now  become  serious.    The  laws  of  the 
State  affixed  the  death  penalty  for  stealing  u  slave. 
At  night  when  young  Coffin  and  his  father,  with 
Sam,  were  on  their  way  to  conjplete  arrangements 
for  the  de  arture,  horsemen  appeared  in  the  road 
near  by.    They  had  only  time  to  throw  themselves 
flat  on  the  ground  behind  a  log.    From  the  con- 
versation overheard,  they  were  assured  that  they 


ill 


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ii 


IW        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

joad  narrowly  e^ap«|   the  night-riders  on  the 

c"ffi°"I  f  ^  "^''^°'^-  The  next  year.  18«/ 
Coffin  h,„..elf  joined  a  p„.y  going  to  Ldilna  by 
the  southern  route  through  Tennessee  and  Ken! 

overtaken  by  men  who  professed  to  be  looking  for 
a  Kt  dog,  but  whose  real  purpose  was  to  rec^v" 
™awa,  s  aves.    They  insisted  upon  e^amZZ 
the  contents  of  the  wagons,  for  i„  this  way  only  f 
sh^t  t.n>e  previous  a  fugitive  had  been  clpturrf 
These  mc-dents  show  the  origin  of  the  system 
The  fi„t  case  of  assistance  rendered  a  negL  wTs 
not  m  .tself  illegal,  but  was  intended  n,ZyZ 
prevent  the  crime  of  kidnapping.    The  second  „! 
*gal  ,„  form,  bu,  the  aid  was  given  to  one  wZ 
havmg  been  set  free  by  will,  was  being  r^slav^,' 
rt  was  be heved.  by  an  unjust  decision  of  a  court 
n    th,rd  wa,  a  case  of  outrageous  abuse  on      e 

I7ne  t         TT     ^'"'  "'^  ^"^  had  himself 
gone  to  a    rader  begging  that  he  would  buy  him 

and  prefernng  to  take  his  chances  on  a  Missil^ 
plantation  rather  than  rof..-^  ♦    u-  ^ 

xxcr  man  return  to  his  master     Th*. 

trader  offered  the  eustoma^  price  and  Z  It 
wUh  the  reply  that  he  could  have  the  rascal  if  he 
would  wa.t  until  after  the  enraged  owner  h^ 
taken  h.s  revenge,  otherwise  the  price  would  be 


i\] 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      119 

twice  the  amount  offered.  A  large  proportion  of 
the  fugitives  belonged  to  this  maltreated  class. 
Others  were  goaded  to  escape  by  the  prospect  of 
deportation  to  the  Gulf  States.  The  fugitives 
generally  followed  the  beaten  line  of  travel  to  the 
North  and  West. 

In  1826  Levi  Coffin  became  merchant  in  New- 
port, Indiana,  a  town  near  the  Ohio  line  not  far 
from  Richmond.  In  the  to\^-n  and  in  its  neigh- 
borhood lived  a  large  number  of  free  negroes  who 
were  the  descendants  of  former  slaves  whom  North 
Carolina  Quakers  had  set  free  and  had  colonized 
in  the  new  country.  Coffin  found  that  these  blacks 
were  accustomed  to  assist  fugitives  on  their  way 
to  Canada.  When  he  also  learnt  that  some  had 
been  captured  and  returned  to  bondage  merely 
through  lack  of  skill  on  the  part  of  the  negroes, 
he  assumed  active  operations  as  a  conductor  on 
the  Underground  Railroad. 

Coffin  used  the  Underground  Railroad  as  a  means 
of  making  converts  to  the  cause.  One  who  be- 
rated him  for  negro-stealing  was  adroitly  induced 
to  meet  a  newly  arrived  passenger  and  listen  to  his 
pathetic  story.  At  the  psychological  moment  the 
objector  was  skillfully  led  to  hand  the  fugitive  a 
dollar  to  assist  him  in  reaching  a  place  of  safety. 


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HO         THE  ANTI.SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
Coffin  then  explained  to  this  benevolent  non-abo- 
I.  ,on„t    he  nature  of  his  act,  assuring  h.m  that 
he  was  hable  to  heavy  damages  the-efor.     The 
reply  was  m  this  case  more  forcible  than  elegant: 

Damn,t,    Y„„Veg„t„er    This  conversion  he 
pubhcly  proclaimed  for  the  sake  of  its  influence 

those  of  supposed  pro-slavery  convictions  were 
brought  fa«.  to  face  with  an  actual  case  of  the 
threatened  reSnsIavement  of  a  human  being  escap- 
.ng  from  bondage  and  were,  to  their  own  sun,rise 

overcome  by  the  natural,  humane  sentunent  which 
averted  .tself.    For  example,  a  Cincinnati  mer 
d>ant.  who  at  the  time  was  supposed  to  be  assist- 
.»g  one  of  h.s  Southern  customers  to  rcco.  .  an 
escaped  fugitive,  was  confronted  at  his  own         e 
by  the  poor  half. starved  victim.    Yielding  ... 
impulse  of  compassion,  he  gave  the  slave  food 
and  personal  assistance  and  directed  the  destitute 
creature  to  a  place  of  refuge 

with  wh,ch  Lev.  Coffin  was  intimately  associated 

ZZh'"l  •"r-'P'-'y  "  "'responding  attitude 
m  oUier  churches  on  the  question  of  slavery.  The 
Quakers  availed  themselves  of  the  first  gre^t  anti- 
slavery  movement  to  rid  themselves  completely  of 


e 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      lil 

the  burden.  Their  Society  itself  became  an  anti- 
slavery  organization.  Yet  even  so  the  Friends  had 
differences  of  opinion  as  to  fit  methods  of  action. 
Not  only  did  many  of  them  disapprove  of  rendering 
aid  to  fugitives  but  they  also  objected  to  the  use  of 
the  meeting-houses  for  anti-slavery  lectures.  The 
formation  of  the  Liberty  party  served  to  accentu- 
ate the  division.  The  great  body  of  the  Friends 
were  anti-slavery  Whigs. 

A  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  Society  of  Friends  in 
the  State  of  Indiana  was  reached  in  1843  when  the 
radicals  seceded  and  organized  an  independent 
"Anti-Slavery  Friends  Society."  Immediately 
there  appeared  in  numerous  localities  duplicate 
Friends'  meeting-houses.  In  and  around  one  of 
these,  distinguished  as  "Liberty  Hall,"  were 
gathered  those  whose  supreme  religious  interest 
was  directed  against  the  sin  of  slavery.  Never  was 
there  a  church  division  which  involved  less  bad 
blood  or  sense  of  injury  or  injustice.  Members  of 
the  same  family  attended  separate  churches  with- 
out the  least  difference  in  their  cordial  relations. 
No  important  principle  was  involved;  there  were 
apparently  good  reasons  for  both  lines  of  policy, 
and  each  party  understood  and  respected  the 
other's   position.      After    the    adoption    of    the 


U'J 


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122        THE  ANTI.SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
Fugitive  SJave  Law  of  1850  and  the  passing  of  the 
Whig  party,   these  diflFerences  disappeared,  the 
separate   organization   was    disbanded,   and   all 
Friends'  meeting-houses  became  "liberty  halls  " 

The  disposition  to  aid  the  fugitive  was  by"  no 
means  confined  to  the  North  nor  to  Quakers  in  the 
South.    Richard  Dillingham,  a  young  Quaker  who 
had  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  escaped  fugitives 
in  Cmcmnati  and  had  undertaken  a  mission  to 
Nashville.  Tennessee,  to  rescue  their  relatives  from 
a     hard  master."  was  arrested  with  three  stolen 
slaves  on  his  hands.    He  made  confession  in  open 
court  and  frankly  explained  his  motives.     The 
Nashnlle  Daily  Gazette  of  April  13, 1849.  has  words 
of  commendation  for  the  prisoner  and  his  family 
and  state,  that  "he  was  not  without  the  sympathy 
of  those  who  attended  the  trial."    Though  Dilling- 
ham  committed  a  crime  to  which  the  death  penalty 
was  attached  in  some  of  the  States,  the  jury  affixed 
the  mmimum  penalty  of  three  years'  imprisonment 
for  the  offense.   As  Nashville  was  far  removed  from 
Quaker  influence  or  any  sort  of  anti-slavery  propa- 
ganda. Dillingham  was  himself  astonished  and  was 
profoundly  grateful  for  the  leniency  shown  him  by 
Court,  jury,  and  prosecutors.     This  incident  oc- 
curred in  the  year  before  the  adoption  of  the 


^) 


ii   .-.' 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      123 

Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850.     It  is  well  known 
that  in  all  times  and  places  which  were  free  frora 
partizan  bitterness  there  was  a  general  ratural 
sympathy  for  those  who  imperiled  their  life  and 
liberty  to  free  the  slave.    Throughout  the  South 
men  of  both  races  were  ready  to  give  aid  to  slaves 
seeking  to  escape  from  dangers  or  burdens  which 
they  regarded  as  intolerable.     While  such  a  man 
as  Frederick  Douglass,  when  still  a  slave,  was  an 
agent  of  the  Underground  Railroad,  Southern  anti- 
slavery  people  themselves  were  to  a  large  extent 
the  original  projectors  of  the  movement.     Even 
members  of  tiji*  families  of  slaveholders  have  been 
known  to  assist  fugitives  in  their  escape  to  the 
North. 

The  fugitives  traveled  in  various  ways  which 
were  determined  partly  by  geographical  conditions 
and  partly  by  the  character  of  the  inhabitants  of 
a  region.  On  the  Atlantic  coast,  from  Florida  to 
Delaware,  slaves  were  concealed  in  ships  and  were 
thus  conveyed  to  free  States.  Thence  some  made 
^^eir  way  towards  Canada  by  steamboat  or  rail- 
o.  though  most  made  the  journey  on  foot  or, 
less  frequently,  in  private  conveyances.  Stalwart 
slaves  sometimes  walked  from  the  Gulf  States  to 
the  free  States,  traveling  chiefly  by  night  and 


t» 


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124  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
guided  by  the  North  Star.  Having  reached  a  free 
State,  they  found  friends  among  those  of  their  own 
race,  or  were  taken  in  hand  by  oflScers  of  the  Under- 
ground Railroad  and  were  thus  helped  across  the 
Canadian  border. 

From  the  seacoast  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut 
River  furnished  a  convenient  route  for  completing 
the  journey  northward,  though  the  way  of  the 
fugitives  was  often  deflected  to  the  Lake  Cham- 
plain  region.     In  later  years,  when  New  England 
became  generally  sympathetic,  numerous  lines  of 
escape  traversed  that  entire  section.   Other  courses 
extended  northward  from  the  vicinity  of  Phila- 
delphia, Delaware,  and  Maryland.    Here,  through 
the  center  of  American  Quakerdom,  all  conditions 
favored  the  escape  of  fugitives,  for  slavery  and 
freedom  were  at  close  quarters.    The  activities  of 
the  Quakers,  who  were  at  first  engaged  merely  in 
preventing  the  reSnslavement  of  those  who  had  a 
legal  right  to  freedom,  naturally  expanded  until 
aid  was  given  without  reservation  to  any  fugi- 
tive.    From  Philadelphia  as  a  distributing  point 
the  route  went  by  way  of  New  York  and  the 
Hudson  River  or  up  the  river  valleys  of  eastern 
Pennsylvania  through  western  New  York. 
In  addition  to  the  routes  to  freedom  which  the 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      125 

seacoust  and  river  valleys  afforded,  the  Appala- 
chian chain  of  mountains  formed  an  attractive  high- 
way  of  escape  from  slavery,  though  these  mountain 
paths  lead  us  to  another  branch  of  our  subject 
not  immediately  connected  with  the  Undergro'md 
Railroad  —  the  escape  from  bondage  by  the  initia- 
tive of  the  slaves  themselves  or  by  the  aid  of  their 
own  people.  Mountains  have  always  been  a  refuge 
and  a  defense  for  the  outlaw,  and  the  few  dwellers 
in  this  almost  unknown  wilderness  were  not  in- 
frequently either  indifferent  or  friendly  to  the 
fugitives.  The  escaped  slaves  might,  if  they  chose, 
adopt  for  an  indefinite  time  the  free  life  of  the  hills; 
but  in  most  cases  they  naturally  drifted  northward 
for  greater  security  until  they  found  themselves 
in  a  free  State.  Through  the  mountainous  regions 
of  Virginia  many  thus  escaped,  and  they  were  in- 
duced to  remain  there  by  the  example  and  advice 
of  residents  of  their  own  color.  The  negroes  them- 
selves excelled  all  others  in  furnishing  places  of 
refuge  to  fugitives  from  slavery  and  in  concealing 
their  status.  For  this  reason  John  Brown  and  his 
associates  were  influenced  to  select  this  region  for 
their  great  venture  in  1859. 

But  there  were  other  than  geographical  con- 
ditions which  helped  to  determine  the  direction 


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1«8        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

of  the  lines  of  the  Underground  Railroad.    West 
of  the  Alleghanies  are  the  broad  plains  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  and  in  this  great  region  hu- 
man elements  rather  than  physical  characteristics 
proved  influential.    Northern  Ohio  was  occupied 
by  settlers  from  the  East,  many  of  whom  were  anti- 
slavery.    Southern  Ohio  was  populated  largely  by 
Quakers  and  other  people  from  the  slave  States 
who  abhorred  slavery.    On  the  east  and  south  the 
State  bordered  on  slave  territory,  and  every  part 
of  the  region  was  traversed  by  lines  of  travel  for  the 
slave.    In  eastern  and  northern  Indiana  a  favor- 
able attitude  prevailed.     Southwestern  Indiana, 
however,  and  southern  Illinois  were  occupied  by 
those  less  friendly  to  the  slave,  so  that  in  these 
sections  there  is  little  evidence  of  systematic  aid 
to  fugitives.     But  with  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  as 
a  starting-point,  northern  Illinois  became  honey- 
combed with  refuges  for  patrons  of  the  Under- 
ground Railroad.     The  negro  also  found  friends  in 
all  the  settled  portions  of  Iowa,  and  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  War  a  lively  traffic  was  being 
developed,  extending  from  Lawrence,  Kansas,  to 
Keokuk,  Iowa. 

There  is  respectable  authority  for  a  variety  of 
opinions  as  to  the  requirements  of  the  rendition 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      127 


as 


i 


i 


clause  in  the  Constitution  and  of  the  Act  of  Con- 
gress of  1793  to  facilitate  the  return  of  fugitives 
from  service  or  labor;  but  there  is  no  respectable 
authority  in  support  of  the  view  that  neither  the 
spirit  nor  the  letter  of  the  law  was  violated  by  the 
supporters  of  the  Underground  Railroad.  This 
was  a  source  of  real  weakness  to  anti-slavery 
leaders  in  politics.  K  was  always  true  that  only 
a  small  minority  of  their  numbers  were  actual  vio- 
lators of  the  law,  yet  such  was  their  relation  to 
the  organized  anti-slavery  movement  that  responsi- 
bility attached  to  all.  The  platform  of  the  Liberty 
party  for  1844  declared  that  the  provisions  of  the 
Constitution  for  reclaiming  fugitive  slaves  were 
dangerous  to  liberty  and  ought  to  be  abrogated. 
It  further  declared  that  the  members  of  the  party 
would  treat  these  provisions  as  void,  because  they 
involved  an  order  to  commit  an  immoral  act.  The 
platform  thus  explicitly  committed  the  party  to 
the  support  of  the  policy  of  rendering  aid  to  fugi- 
tive slaves.  Four  years  later  the  platform  of  the 
Free-soil  party  contained  no  reference  -whatever 
to  fugitive  slaves,  but  that  of  1852  denounced  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1850  as  repugnant  to  the 
Constitution  and  the  spirit  of  Christianity  and 
denied  its  binding  force  on  the  American  people. 


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15'   H 


188        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

The  Republican  platform  of  1856  made  no  refer- 
ence to  the  subject. 

The  Underground  Railroad  filled  an  insignifi- 
cant place  in  the  general  plan  for  emancipation, 
even  in  the  minds  of  the  directors.  It  was  a  lesser 
task  preparatory  to  the  great  work.  As  to  the 
numbers  of  slaves  who  gained  their  freedom  by 
means  of  it,  there  is  a  wide  range  of  opinion.  State- 
ments in  Congress  by  Soutliem  members  that  a 
hundred  thousand  had  escaped  must  be  regarded 
as  gross  exaggerations.  In  any  event  the  loss  was 
confined  chiefly  to  the  border  States.  Besides,  it 
has  been  stated  with  some  show  of  reason  that 
the  danger  of  servile  insurrection  was  diminished 
by  the  escape  of  potential  leaders. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  great  body  of  anti- 
slavery  men  who  expected  to  settle  the  slavery 
question  by  peaceable  means,  it  was  a  calamity  of 
the  first  magnitude  that,  just  at  the  time  when 
conditions  were  most  favorable  for  transferring  the 
active  crusade  from  the  general  Government  to  i\ 
separate  States,  public  attention  should  be  direc*  a 
to  the  one  point  at  which  the  conflict  was  most 
acute  and  irrepressible. 

Previous  to  1850  there  had  been  no  general 
acrimonious  debate  in  Congress  on  the  rendition  of 


THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD      129 

fugitive  slaves.  Al>oul  half  of  those  who  had  pre- 
viously escapwl  from  borwhige  had  not  taken  the 
trouble  to  go  as  far  as  Canada,  hut  were  living  at 
peace  in  the  Northern  States.  Few  people  at  the 
North  knew  or  care<l  anything  about  the  details 
of  a  law  that  had  been  on  the  statute  books  since 
1793.  Members  of  Congress  were  duly  warnetl  of 
the  dangers  involved  in  any  attempt  to  enforce  a 
more  stringent  law  than  the  previous  act  which  had 
proved  a  dead  letter.  To  those  who  understood 
the  conditions,  the  new  law  also  was  doomed  to 
failure.  So  said  Senator  Butler  of  South  Carolina. 
An  attempt  to  enforce  it  would  be  met  by  violence. 
This  prediction  came  true.  The  twenty  thou- 
sand potential  victims  residing  in  Northern  States 
were  thrown  into  panic.  Some  rushed  off  to  Can- 
ada; others  organized  means  for  protection.  A 
father  and  son  from  Baltimore  came  to  a  town  in 
Pennsylvania  to  recover  a  fugitive.  An  alarm  was 
sounded;  men,  mostly  colored,  rushed  to  the  pro- 
tection of  the  one  whose  liberty  was  threatened. 
Two  Quakers  appeared  on  the  scene  and  warned 
the  slave-hunters  to  desist  and  upon  their  refusal 
one  slave-hunter  was  instantly  killed  and  the  other 
wounded.  The  fugitive  was  conveyed  to  a  place 
of  safety,  and  to  the  murderers  no  punishment  was 


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180        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

meted  out.  thou^-'i  the  general  Covermiunt  made 
strenuous  efforts  to  discover  und  punish  them.  In 
New  York,  thou  ad  <  Jerrit  Smith  and  u  local  clergy, 
man  with  u  few  sistantj*  rescue<l  a  fugitive  from 
the  officers  of  Uie  In.-  und  sent  hin.  to  Canada, 
openly  proolaim  i.^.  .  >d  justifying  the  act.  no 
attempt  was  ?-..,,.  tu  | unish  the  offenders. 

After  a  doze.  ;  t  .r ;  of  intense  and  ever-increas- 
ing excitement,  aH  .:    wher  c-.uses  of  friction  be- 
tween Nor^h  vm:   -:o     ;.  '.*...     rently  been  re- 
moved  and  go...     Itfzf  •.    ,.,  ,,ie  two  sections  were 
rejoicing  at  th.     ,rosp  ,  i     f  on  era  of  peace  and 
harmony,  public    ttentici.  a  as  concentrated  upon 
the  one  problem  of  conduct  which  would  not  admit 
of  peaceable  le^ul  adjustment.    Abolitionists  had 
always  been  stigmatized  as  lawbreakers  whose  aim 
was  the  destruction  of  slavery  in  utter  disregard 
of  the  rights  of  the  States.    This  charge  was  ab- 
solutely false;  their  settled  program  involved  full 
recognition  of  state  and  municipal  control  over 
slavery.    Yet  after  public  attention  had  become 
fixed  upon  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  abolitiom'sts 
which  was  illegal,  it  was  difficult  to  escape  the  im- 
plication that  their  whole  course  was  illegal.    This 
was  the  tragic  significance  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Act  of  1850. 


y; 


CHAPTER  IX 


BOOKS  AS  ANTI-SLAVERY    VVEAI'ON!* 


•   i 


VVhittier  offered  up  "thanks  for  the  fugitive  slave 
law;  for  it  guv  occa.sion  for  Unch'  Tom's  Cabin" 
Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  had  been  mistress  of 
a  stiition  on  th*;  Underground  Railroad  at  Cin- 
cinnati, the  storm-center  of  the  West,  and  out  of 
her  experience  she  has  transmitted  to  the  world  a 
knowledge  of  the  elemental  and  tragic  human  ex- 
periences of  the  slaves  which  would  otherwise  have 
been  restricted  to  a  select  few.     Tlic  mistress  of  a 
similar  station  in  eastern  Indiana,  though  she  held 
novel  reading  a  deadly  sin,  said:  "Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin  is  not  a  novel ,  it  is  a  record  of  facts .    I  myself 
have  listened  to  the  same  stories."    Tlie  reading 
public  in  all  lands  soon  became  sj-mpathetic  par- 
ticipants in  the  labors  of  those  who,  in  defiance  of 
law,  were  lending  a  hand  to  the  aspirants  for  liberty. 
At  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  story  in 
book  form  in  March,  1852,  America  was  being 

131 


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i 


132        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

profoundly  stirred  by  the  stories  of  fugitives  who 
had  escaped  from  European  despotism.  Mrs.  Stowe 
refers  to  these  incidents  in  her  question:  "When 
despairing  Hungarian  fugitives  make  their  way, 
against  all  the  search-warrants  and  authorities 
of  their  lawful  governmenis  to  America,  press  and 
political  cabinet  ring  with  applause  and  welcome. 
When  despairing  African  fugitives  do  the  same 
thing  —  it  is  —  what  is  it.? "    Little  did  she  think 
that  when  the  eloquence  of  the  Hungarian  refugee 
had  been  forgotten,  the  story  of  Eliza  and  Uncle 
Tom  would  ring  throughout  the  world. 

The  book  did  far  more  than  vindicate  the  con- 
duct of  those  who  rendered  assistance  to  the  fugi- 
tive from  slavery;  it  let  in  daylight  upon  the  essen- 
tial nature  of  slavery.    Humane  and  just  masters 
are  shown  to  be  forced  into  participation  in  acts 
which  result  in  intolerable  cruelty.     Full  Justice 
is  done  to  the  noble  and  admirable  character  of 
Southern  slave-owners.    The  author  had  been  a 
guest  in  the  home  of  the  "Shelbys,"  in  Kentucky. 
She  had  taken  great  pains  to  understand  the  South- 
ern point  of  view  on  the  subject  of  slavery;  she  had 
entered  into  the  real  trials  and  difficulties  involved 
in  any  plan  of  emancipation.    St.  Clair,  speaking 
to  Miss  Ophelia,  his  New  England  cousin,  says: 


BOOKS  AS  ANTI-SLAVERY  WEAPONS  133 

If  we  emancipate,  arc  you  willing  to  educate?  How 
many  families  of  your  town  would  take  in  a  negro  man 
oi'  woman,  teach  them,  l)car  with  them,  and  seek  to 
aiake  them  Christians?  How  many  merchants  would 
take  Adolph,  if  I  wanted  to  make  him  a  clerk;  or 
mechanics,  if  I  wanted  to  teach  him  a  trade?  If  I 
wanted  to  put  Jane  and  Rosa  to  a  school,  how  many 
schools  are  there  in  the  Northern  States  that  would 
take  them  in?  How  many  families  that  would  board 
them?  and  yet  they  are  as  white  as  many  a  woman 
north  or  south.  You  sec,  cousin,  I  want  justice  done 
us.  We  are  in  a  bad  position.  We  are  the  more  obvious 
oppressors  of  the  negro;  but  the  unchristian  prejudice 
of  the  north  is  an  oppressor  alniist  equally  severe. 

Throughout  the  book  the  idea  is  elaborated  in 
many  ways.  Miss  Ophelia  is  introduced  for  the 
purpose  of  contrasting  Northern  ignorance  and 
New  England  prejudice  with  the  patience  and 
forbearance  of  the  better  class  of  siuvc-owners  of 
the  South.  The  genuine  affection  of  an  unspoiled 
child  for  negro  friends  is  made  especially  emphatic. 
Miss  Ophelia  objected  to  Eva's  expressions  of  de- 
votion to  Uncle  Tom.  Her  father  insists  that  his 
daughter  shall  not  be  robbed  of  the  free  utterance 
of  her  high  regard,  observing  that  "  the  child  is  the 
only  true  democrat."  There  is  only  one  Simon 
Legree  in  the  book,  and  he  is  of  New  England  ex- 
traction.   The  story  is  as  distinctly  intended  to 


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1S4        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

inform  Northern  ignorance  and  to  remove  North- 
em  prejudice  as  it  is  to  justify  the  conduct  of 
abolitionists. 

What  was  the  eflFect  of  the  publication  ?  In  Euro- 
pean countries  far  removed  from  local,  partizan 
prejudice,  it  was  immediately  received  as  a  great 
revelation  of  the  spirit  of  liberty.  It  was  trans- 
lated into  twenty-three  different  languages.  So 
devoted  were  the  Italians  to  the  reading  of  the 
story  that  there  was  earnest  effort  to  suppress  its 
circulation.  As  a  drama  it  proved  a  great  success, 
not  only  in  America  and  England  but  in  France 
and  other  countries  as  well.  More  than  a  million 
copies  of  the  story  were  sold  in  the  British  Empire. 
Lord  Palmerston  avers  that  he  had  not  read  a 
novel  for  thirty  years,  yet  he  read  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin  three  times  and  commended  the  book  for  the 
statesmanship  displayed  in  it. 

What  is  in  the  story  to  call  forth  such  conmien- 
dation  from  the  cold-blooded  English  statesman? 
The  book  revealed,  in  a  way  fitted  to  carry  convic- 
tion to  every  unprejudiced  reader,  the  impossi- 
bility of  uniting  slavery  with  freedom  under  the 
same  Government.  Either  all  must  be  free  or  the 
mass  subject  to  the  few  —  or  there  is  actual  war. 
This  principle  is  finely  brought  out  in  the  predica- 


i.'T 


1 1 


i\  ». 


BOOKS  AS  ANTI-SLAVERY  WEAPONS  185 
ment  of  the  Quaker  confronted  by  a  fugitive  with 
wife  and  child  who  had  seen  a  sister  sold  and  con- 
veyed to  a  life  of  shame  on  a  Southern  plantation. 
"  Am  I  going  to  stand  by  and  see  them  take  my  wife 
and  sell  her?"  exclaimed  the  negro.    "No,  God 
help  me!    I'll  fight  to  the  last  breatli  before  they 
shall  take  my  wife  and  son.    Can  you  blame  me  ?  " 
To  which  the  Quaker  replied:  "Mortal  man  can- 
not blame  thee,  George.    Flesh  and  blood  could  not 
do  otherwise.    *Woe  unto  the  world  because  of  of- 
fences but  woe  unto  them  through  whom  the  of- 
fence cometh.' "    "Would  not  even  you,  sir,  do  the 
same,  in  my  place? "    "I  pray  that  I  be  not  tried." 
And  in  the  ensuing  events  the  Quaker  played  an 
important  part. 

Laws  enacted  for  the  protection  of  slave  prop- 
erty are  shown  to  be  destructive  of  the  fundamen- 
tal rights  of  freemen ;  they  are  inhuman .  The  Ohio 
Senator,  who  in  his  lofty  preserve  at  the  capital  of 
his  country  could  discourse  eloquently  of  his  readi- 
ness to  keep  faith  with  the  South  in  the  matter  of 
the  faithful  execution  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
becomes,  when  at  home  with  his  family,  a  flagrant 
violator  of  the  law.  Elemental  human  nature  is 
pitted  against  the  apparent  interests  of  a  few  in- 
dividual slave-owners. 


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186        THE  ANTI-SILVERY  CRUSADE 

The  story  of  Uncle  Tom  placed  all  supporters  of 
the  new  law  on  the  defensive.    It  was  read  by  all 
classes  North  and  South.    Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  as  it 
it  was  called  forth  from  the  South  as  a  reply  to 
Mrs.  Stowe's  book,  and  there  ensued  a  general  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject  which  was  on  the  whole  en- 
lightening.   Yet  the  immediate  political  effect  of 
the  publication  was  less  than  might  have  been  ex- 
pected from  a  book  so  widely  read  and  discussed. 
Its  appearance  early  in  the  decade  did  not  pre- 
vent the  apparent  pro-slavery  reaction  already 
described.     But  Mr.  Rhodes  calls  attention  to  the 
different  impression  which  the  book  made  upon 
adults  and  boys.     Hardened  sinners  in  partizan 
politics  could  read  the  book,  laugh  and  weep  over 
the  passing  incidents,  and  then  go  on  as  if  nothing 
had  happened.    Not  so  with  the  thirteen-year-old 
boy.    He  never  could  be  the  same  again.    The  Re- 
publican party  of  1860  was  especially  successful 
in  gaining  the  first  vote  of  the  youthful  citizen 
and  undoubtedly  owed  much  of  its  influence  to 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin. 

Two  lines  of  attack  were  rapidly  rendering  im- 
possible the  continuance  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States.  Mrs.  Stowe  gave  effective  expression  to 
the  moral,  religious,  and  humanitarian  sentiment 


BOOKS  AS  ANTI-SLAVERY  WEAPONS  137 
against  slavery.    In  the  year  in  which  her  work 
was  published,  Frederick  Law  Olmsted  began  his 
extended   journeys    throughout    the   South.    He 
represents  the  impartial  scientific  observer.     His 
books  were  published  during  the  years  1856,  1857, 
and  1861.    They  constitute  in  their  own  way  an 
indictment  against  slavery  quite  as  forcible  as 
that  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  but  an  indictment  that 
rests  chiefly  upon  the  blighting  influence  of  the 
institution  of  slavery  upon  agriculture,  manufac- 
tures, and  the  general  industrial  and  social  order. 
The  crisis  came  too  soon  for  these  publications 
to  have  any  marked  effect  upon  the  issue.     Their 
appeal  was  to  the  deliberate  and  thoughtful  reader, 
and  political  control  had  already  drifted  into  the 
hands   of   those   who   were   not   deliberate   and 
composed. 

In  1857,  however,  there  appeared  a  book  which 
did  exert  a  marked  influence  upon  immediate  politi- 
cal issues.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Hinton  Rowan 
Helper,  the  author  of  The  Impending  Crisis,  had 
any  knowledge  of  the  writings  of  Olmsted;  but  he 
was  familiar  with  Northern  anti-slaverj-  literature. 
"I  have  considered  my  subject  more  particilarly," 
he  states  in  his  preface,  "with  reference  to  its 
economic  aspects  as  regards  the  whites  —  not  with 


n 

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1 
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4  n 


'■■'i; 


1«        THE  ANTLSLAVERY  CRUSADE 
reference,  except  in  a  very  slight  degree,  to  its 
humanitarian  or  rdigious  aspects.    To  the  latter 
side  of  the  question.  Northern  writers  have  already 

done  full  and  timely  justice Yankee  wives 

have  written  the  most  popular  anti-slavery  litera- 
ture of  the  day.   Against  this  I  have  nothing  to  say; 
It  is  all  well  enough  for  women  to  give  the  fictions 
of  slavery;  men  should  give  the  facts."    He  denies 
that  it  had  been  his  purpose  to  cast  unmerited 
opprobium  upon  slaveholders;  yet  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal  injury  breathes  throughout  the  pages.    If  he 
had  no  intention  of  casting  unmerited  opprobrium 
upon  slaveholders,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  what 
language  he  could  have  used  if  he  had  undertaken 
to  pass  the  limit  of  deserved  reprobation.    In  this 
regard  the  book  is  quite  in  line  with  the  style  of 
Southern  utterance  against  abolitionists. 

Helper  belonged  to  a  slaveholding  family,  for 
a  hundred  years  resident  in  the  Carolinas.     The 
dedication  is  significant.     It  is  to  three  personal 
friends  from  three  slave  States  who  at  the  time 
were  residing  in  California,  in  Oregon,  and  in  Wash- 
ington  Territory,  "and  to  the  non-slaveholding 
whites  of  the  South  generally,  whether  at  home  or 
abroad."    Out  of  the  South  had  come  the  inspira- 
tion for  the  religious  and  hmnanitarian  attack 


BOOKS  AS  ANTI-SLA^ERY  WEAPONS  139 

upon  slavery.  From  the  same  source  came  the  call 
for  relief  of  the  poverty-stricken  white  victims  of 
the  institution. 

Helper's  book  revived  the  controversy  which  had 
been  forcibly  terminated  a  quarter  of  a  century 
before.  He  resumes  the  argument  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Virginia  legislature  of  1832.  He  re- 
prints extended  selections  from  that  memorable 
debate  and  then,  by  extended  references  to  later 
oflBcial  reports,  points  out  how  slavery  is  impover- 
ishing the  South.  The  South  is  shown  to  have 
continuously  declined,  while  the  North  has  made 
immense  gains.  In  a  few  years  the  relation  of  the 
South  to  the  North  would  resemble  that  of  Poland 
to  Russia  or  of  Ireland  to  England.  The  author 
sees  no  call  for  any  arguments  against  slavery  as 
an  economic  system;  he  would  simply  bring  the 
earlier  characterization  of  the  situation  down  to 
date. 

Helper  differs  radically  from  all  earlier  speakers 
and  writers  in  that  he  outlines  a  program  for 
definite  action.  He  estimates  that  for  the  entire 
South  there  are  seven  white  non-slaveholders  for 
every  three  slaveholders.  He  would  organize  these 
non-slaveholding  whites  into  an  independent  po- 
litical party  and  would  hold  a  general  convention  of 


I  ^i» 


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140        THE  ANTI.SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

non-slaveholders  from  every  slave  State  to  adopt 
measures  to  restrain  "the  diabolical  excesses  of 
the  oligarchy"  and  to  annihilate  slavery.    Slave- 
holders  should  be  entirely  excluded  from  any  share 
m  government.    They  should  be  treated  as  crimi- 
nals ostracized  from  respectable  society.     He  is 
careful  to  state,  however,  that  by  slaveholder  he 
does  not  mean  such  men  as  Benton  of  Missouri  and 
many  others  throughout  the  slave  States  who  re- 
torn  the  sentiments  on  the  slavery  question  of  the 
immortal  Fathers  of  the  Republic."     He  has  in 
mind  only  the  new  order  of  owners,  who  have  de- 
termmed  by  criminal  methods  to  inflict  the  crime 
of  slavery  upon  an  overwhelming  majority  of  their 
white  fellow-citizens. 

The  publication  of  The  Impending  Crisis  created 
a  profound  sensation  among  Southern  leaders.    So 
long  as  the  att  ok  upon  the  peculiar  institution 
emanated  from  the  North,  the  defenders  had  the 
full  benefit  of  local   prejudice  and  resentment 
agamst  outside  intrusion.    Helper  was  himself  a 
thorough-going  believer  in  state  rights.    Slavery 
was  to  be  abolished,  as  he  thought,  by  the  action 
of  the  separate  States.    Here  he  was  in  accord  with 
Northern  abolitionists.    If  such  literature  as  Help- 
er's volume  should  find  its  way  into  che  South  it 


BOOKS  AS  ANTI-SLAVERY  WEAPONS  141 
would  be  no  longer  possible  to  palm  off  upon  the 
unthinking  public  the  patent  falsehood  that  abo- 
litionists of  the  North  were  attempting  to  im- 
pose by  force  a  change  in  Southern  institutions. 
All  that  Southern  abolitionists  ever  asked  was 
the  privilege  of  remaining  at  home  in  their  own 
South  in  the  full  exercise  of  their  constitutional 
rights. 

Southern  leaders  were  undoubtedly  aware  of  the 
concurrent  publications  of  travelers  and  newspaper 
reporters,  of  which  Olmsted's  books  were  conspicu- 
ous examples.  Olmsted  and  Helper  were  both 
sources  of  proof  that  slavery  was  bringing  the 
South  to  financial  t  uin.  The  facts  were  getting 
hold  of  the  minds  of  the  Southern  people.  The 
debate  which  had  been  adjourned  was  on  the  eve 
of  being  resumed.  Complete  suppression  of  the 
new  scientific  industrial  argument  against  slavery 
seemed   to    slave-owners    to   furnish   their   only 

defense. 

The  Appalachian  ranges  of  mountains  drove  a 
wedge  of  libertj  and  freedom  from  Pennsylvania 
almost  to  the  Gulf.  In  the  upland  regions  slavery 
could  not  flourish.  There  was  always  enmity  be- 
tween the  planters  of  the  coast  and  the  dwellers 
on  the  upland.      The  slaveholding  oligarchy  had 


k 


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<«       THE  ANTI-SUVERY  CRUSADE 

^.  Th«  «  th,.  explanation  of  the  veritabl. 
P-..C  wh,ch  H.W»  puWieation  „..M.  TZ 
bate  whah  should  follow  the  line  of  thi,  old  di  •. 
••on  between  the  peoph.  of  the  Atlantic  .Z 
SUte,  wouhl,  under  e,i,ti„«  eondition,,  be  faU 
to  the  .n,t,tut,on  of  slavery.  VVe,t  Virginia  d7d 
become  a  free  Stal^  -<t  tl.»  c    .  is  ""«  uia 

tie.    in  .  xr  *"'°PP°'''"""J'     Coun- 

ful-tJ"  '™  ^""^  ^''"•''-'  ''•"■»   '"  have 

„^;    .^  .."'"■  '"  ^""^^'^  ™.ncipaUon 
projected  by  abolitionista  been  permitted  ll  tZ 
'is  cour«.  the  upland,  of  South  Carolina  wo^j 
have  been  p.tted  a<rai„,t  the  lowland,,  and  S  „1 
tor  Tillman  wou  d  have  anoear^  «„ 

.boiition^t.  ^eremi.htrr„"::,:x* 

"  """'<'  t'"«  ''««  confined  to  limited  ^.^  i    2l 
«P.ra.e  State,.    Had  the  cri,i,  been  po^^p^^^' 
there  ,„rey  would  have  been  a  revival  of  a^« 
t.on.,m  w,thm  the  Southern  State,.    8^71^ 

e^TT  T  :'r''^  """^""^'""'^  -  "■-•  So^ti" 
en,  leader,  had  long  f„re,een  that  the  State  wouTd 
aboh,h  ,lave^ ,-,  «  free  State  should  be  e,tab«r" 
on  the  we„em  bounda^.  Thi,  wa,  actually  uT^ 
mg  place.    Kan,a,  wa,  filling  „p  „Hh  frcc^^J 


BOOKS  AS  ANTI-SLAVERY  WEAWNS  143 

scltliTs  and,  by  tlu'  act  of  its  own  titizt-iKs,  «  few 
years  later  did  al>olisli  ;davfry. 

Republicans  natura!ly  made  use  of  Helper's 
hook  tor  party  i)ur|)oscs.  A  cheap  abridge*!  edi- 
tion was  brought  out.  Several  Republican  leaders 
were  induced  to  sign  their  names  to  a  paper  com- 
mending the  publication.  Among  these  was  John 
Sherman  of  Ohio,  who  in  the  organization  of  the 
newly  elected  House  of  Representatives  in  1859 
was  the  leading  candidate  of  the  Republicans  for 
the  speakership.  During  the  contest  the  fact  that 
his  name  was  on  this  paper  was  made  public,  and 
Southern  leatlers  were  furious.  Extracts  were  read 
to  prove  that  the  book  was  incendiary.  Millson 
of  Virginia  said  that  "one  who  con.sciously,  de- 
liberately, and  of  purjwse  lends  his  name  and  in- 
fluence to  the  propagation  of  such  writings  is  not 
only  not  fit  to  be  .speaker,  but  he  is  not  fit  to  live." 
It  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  the  situation  that  the 
passage  selected  to  prove  the  incendiary  character 
of  the  book  is  almost  a  literal  quotation  from  the 
debate  in  the  Virginia  Legislature  of  183'i. 


If 
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A 


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CHAPTER  X 


"blkkding  Kansas" 


ii  i 


ill  J 


Both  the  leading  political  parties  were,  in  the 
campaign  of  185«.  fully  conmiitted  to  the  accept- 
ance of  the  so-called  Compromise  of  1850  as  a  final 
settlement  of  the  slavery  question;  both  were  com- 
mitted to  the  support  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act 
The  Free-soil  party,  with  John  P.  Hale  as  its  can- 
didate,  did  make  a  vigorous  attack  upon  the  Fu- 
gitive Slave  Act.  and  opposed  all  compromises 
respectmg  slavery,  but  Free-soilers  had  been  to  a 
large  extent  reabsorbed  into  the  Democratic  party 
their  vote  of  1852  being  only  about  half  that  of 
1848.    Though  the  Whig  vote  was  large  and  only 
about  two  hundred  thousand  less  than  that  of  the 
Democrats,  yet  it  was  so  distributed  that  the 
Whigs  carried  only  four  States.  Massachusetts, 
Vermont,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee.     The  other 
States  gave  a  Democratic  plurality. 
Had  there  been  time  for  readjustment,  the  Whig 

144  * 


m 


•BLKEDINC  KANSAS"  I4S 

party  might  huvt-  rt'covtTtil  lost  ground,  but  no 
time  was  jxTnuttetl.  TIutc  was  in  progress  in 
Missouri  a  fH»Iiti<'aI  <'ontii(t  which  was  alro«dy 
commanding  nulioiial  alti-ntion.  Thomu'^  H.  Ben- 
ton, for  thirty  years  a  Senator  from  Missouri,  and 
a  national  figure,  was  the  storm-ccntcr.  His  ene- 
mies accusiHJ  him  of  being  a  Kree-soih>r,  an  aboli- 
tionist in  di>Kuise.  He  was  profeNStnlly  u  stanch 
and  uncompromising  unionist,  a  personal  and 
political  opponent  o{  John  C  Callu>un.  Accord- 
ing to  his  own  statement  he  hail  been  oppose<l  to 
the  extension  of  slavery  since  1S<)4,  although  he 
had  advocate<l  the  admission  of  Missouri  with  a 
pro-slavery  constitution  in  18i0.  He  was,  from 
the  first,  senior  Senator  from  the  State,  aiul  by 
a  peculiar  combination  of  influences  incurreii  his 
first  defeat  for  reelection  in  1851. 

Benton's  defeat  in  the  Missouri  Legislature  was 
largely  the  result  of  national  pro-slavery  influences. 
In  a  former  chapter,  reference  was  made  to  the 
Ohio  River  as  furnishing  a  "providential  argument 
against  slavery."  The  Mississippi  River  as  the 
eastern  boundary  of  Missouri  furnished  a  like 
argument,  but  on  the  north  not  even  a  prairie 
brook  separated  free  labor  in  Iowa  from  slave  labor 
in  Missouri.    The  inhabitants  of  western  Missouri, 

10 


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146        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

realizing  that  the  tenure  of  their  pecuhar  institu- 
tion  was  becoming  weaker  in  the  east  and  north 
early  became  convinced  that  the  organization  of 
a  free  State  along  their  weste...  boundary  would 
be  followed  by  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  their 
own  State.    This  condition  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  national  guardians  of  pro-slavery  interests. 
Calhoun.  Davis.  Breckinridge.  Toombs,  and  others 
were  m  constant  communication  with  local  leaders 
A  certain  Judge  W.  C.  Price,  a  religious  fanatic,  and 
a  pro-slavery  devotee,  was  induced  to  visit  every 
part  of  the  State  in  1844,  calling  the  attention  of  all 
slaveholders  to  the  perils  of  t^e  situation  and  pre- 
panng  the  way  for  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise.    Senator  Benton,  who  was  approached  on 
the  subject,  replied  in  such  a  way  that  all  radical 
defenders  of  slavery,  both  national  leaders  and 
local  politicians,  were  moved  to  unite  for  his 
political  defeat. 

David  R.  Atchison,  junior  Senator  from  Mis- 
souri, had  been  made  the  leader  of  the  pro-slavery 
forces.  Thedefeatof  Benton  in  the  Missouri  Legis- 
lature did  not  end  the  strife.  He  at  once  became 
a  candidate  for  Atchison',  place  in  the  election 
which  was  to  occur  in  1855.  and  he  was  in  the  mean- 
time  elcK^ted  to  the  House  of  Representatives  in 


il  I 


"BLEEDING  KANSAS"  147 

1852.  The  most  telling  consideration  in  Benton's 
favor  was  the  general  demand,  in  which  he  him- 
self joined,  for  the  immediate  organization  of  the 
western  territory  in  order  to  facilitate  the  building 
of  a  system  of  railways  reaching  the  Pacific,  with 
St.  Louis  as  the  point  of  departure.  For  a  time, 
in  1852  and  1853,  Benton  was  apparently  trium- 
phant, and  Atchison  was  himself  willing  to  con- 
sent to  the  organization  of  the  new  territory  with 
slavery  excluded.  The  national  leaders,  however, 
were  not  of  the  same  mind.  The  real  issue  was  the 
continuance  of  slavery  in  the  State;  the  one  thing 
which  must  not  be  permitted  was  the  transfer  of 
anti-slavery  agitation  to  the  separate  States. 
Henry  Clay's  proposal  of  1849  to  provide  for  grad- 
ual emancipation  in  Kentucky  was  bitterly  re- 
sented. It  had  long  been  an  axiom  with  the  slav- 
ocracy  that  the  institution  would  perish  unless  it 
had  the  opportunity  to  expand.  Out  of  this  con- 
viction arose  Calhoun's  famous  theory  that  slave- 
owners had  under  the  Constitution  an  e(}ual  right 
with  the  owners  of  all  other  forms  of  property  in  all 
the  Territories.  The  theory  itself  assumed  that 
the  act  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  territory  north 
of  the  southern  boundary  of  Missouri  was  uncon- 
stitutional and  void. 


n 


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148        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

But  this  theory  had  not  yet  received  judicial 
sanction,  and  the  time  was  at  hand  when  the  ques- 
tion of  freedom  or  slavery  in  the  western  territory 
was  to  be  determined.     Between  March  and  De- 
cember, 1853,  the  discoverj-  was  mad*-  that  the  Act 
of  1850  organizing  the  Territories  of  New  Mexico 
and  Utah  had  superseded  the  Compromise  of  1820; 
that  a  prkiciple  had  lieen  recognized  applicable  to 
all  the  TcMTitories;  that  all  were  open  to  settlement 
on   equal   terms   to  slaveholders  and   non-slave- 
holders;  that  the  subject  of  slavery  should  be  re- 
moved from  Congress  to  the  people  of  the  Terri- 
tories;  and  that  they  should  decide,  either  when  a 
territorial  lefHature  was  organizetl  or  at  the  time 
of  the  adoption  oi  «  constitution  preparatory  to 
statehood,  whether  or  not  slaverj-  should  be  au- 
thorized.   These  ideas  found  expression  in  various 
newspapers  during  the  month  of  December,  1853. 
Though  the  authorship  of  the  new  theory  is  still  a 
matter  of  dispute,  it  is  well  known  that  Stephen  A. 
I>ouglas  became  its  chief  sponsor  and  champion. 
The  real  motives  and  intentions  of  Douglas  himself 
and  of  many  of  his  supporters  will  always  remain 
obscure   and    uncertain.      But    no    uncertainty 
attaches    to    the   motives   of   Senator   Atchison 
and  the  leaders  of  the  Calhoun  section  of  the 


BLEEDING  KANSAS' 


140 


Democratic  party.  For  ten  years  at  least  they  had 
been  laboring  to  get  rid  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise. Tlieir  motive  was  to  defend  slavery  and 
especially  to  forestall  a  successful  movement  for 
emancipation  in  the  State  of  Missouri. 

From  early  in  January,  1854,  until  late  in  May, 
Douglas's  Nebraska  bill  held  the  attention  of 
Congress  and  of  the  entire  country.  At  first  the 
measure  simply  assumed  that  the  Missouri  Cora- 
promise  had  been  superseiled  by  the  Act  of  1850. 
Later  the  bill  was  amended  in  such  a  way  as  to 
repeal  distinctly  that  time-honored  act.  At  first 
the  plan  was  to  organize  Nebraska  as  a  single 
Territory  extending  from  Texas  to  Canada.  F^ater 
it  was  proposed  to  organize  separate  Teriitories, 
one  west  of  Missouri  under  the  name  of  Kansas, 
theother  west  of  Iowa  under  the  name  of  Nebraska. 
()y)positi<)n  came  from  Free-soilers,  f rom  Northern 
Whigs  and  a  few  Whigs  from  the  South,  and  from  a 
Iarg«*  proportion  of  Northern  Democrats.  The 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  came  like  a 
thunderbolt  out  of  a  clear  sky  to  the  people  of  the 
North.  For  a  tinu-  Douglas  was  the  most  unpopu- 
lar of  political  leaders  and  was  apparently  re- 
pudiated by  his  party.  The  first  nanu'  designating 
the  opponents  of  the  Douglaa   bill  was   "Anli- 


1 


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1«0        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
Nebraska  men."  for  which  the  name  Republican 
was  gradually  substituted  and  in  1856  became  the 
accepted  title  of  the  party. 

The  provision  for  two  territorial  governments 
instead  of  one  carried  with  it  the  idea  of  a  con- 
tinned  balance  between  slave  and  free  States- 
Kansas,  bemg  on  a  geographical  parallel  with 
the  slave  States,  would  probably  permit  slavery 
while  Nebraska  would  be  occupied  by  free-state 
immigrants.     Though  this  was  a  commonly  ac- 
cepted  view.  Eli  Thayer  of  Worcester.  Massa- 
chusetts.  and  a  few  others  took  a  different  view 
They  proposed  to  make  an  end  of  the  discussion  of 
the  extension  of  slavery  by  sending  free  men  who 
were  opposed  to  slavery  to  occupy  the  territory 
open  for  settlement.    To  attain  this  object  they 
organized  an  Emigrant  Aid  Company  incorpora- 
ted under  the  laws  of  the  State.    Even  before  the 
bill  was  passe<l.  the  corporation  was  in  full  work- 
ing order.      Thayer  himself  traveled  extensively 
throughout  the  Northern  States  stimulating  in- 
terest m  western  emigration,  with  Uie  conviction 
that  the  disturbing  question  could  be  peacefully 
settled  in  this  way.     California  had  thus  been 
saved  to  freedom;  why  not  all  other  TerritoriesP 
The  new  company  had  as  adviser  and  colaborer 


"BLEEDING  KANSAS"  151 

Dr.  Charles  Robinson,  who  had  crossed  the  Kansas 
Territory  on  his  way  to  California  and  had  acquire*! 
valuable  experience  in  the  art  of  state-building 
under  peculiar  conditions. 

The  first  party  sent  out  by  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company  arrived  in  Kansas  early  in  August,  1854, 
and  selected  the  site  for  the  town  of  Lawrence. 
During  the  later  months  of  the  year,  four  other 
parties  were  sent  out,  in  all  numbering  nearly 
seven  hundred.  Through  extensive  advertise- 
ment by  the  company,  through  the  general  interest 
in  the  subject  and  the  natural  flow  of  emigration 
to  the  West,  Kansas  was  receiving  large  accessions 
of  free-state  settlers. 

Meanwhile  the  men  of  Missouri,  some  of  whom 
had  striven  for  a  decade  to  secure  the  privilege  of 
extending  slavery  into  the  new  Territory,  were  not 
idle.  Instantly  upon  the  removal  of  legal  bar- 
riers, they  occupied  adjacent  lands,  founded  towns, 
staked  out  claims,  formed  plans  for  preempting  the 
entire  region  and  for  forestalling  or  driving  out  all 
intruders.  They  had  at  first  th(  advantage  of 
position,  for  they  did  not  find  it  difficult  to  main- 
tain two  homes,  one  in  Kansas  for  purposes  of 
voting  and  fighting  and  another  in  Missouri  for 
actual  residence. 


i 


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M  I 


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11^ 


>«        THE  ANTI.SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

Andrew  H.  Reeder.  a  Pennsylvania  Democrat 
of  .strong  pro-davery  prejudices,  was  appointed 
first  Governor  of  the  Territory.     When  he  arrived 
m  Kansas  in  October.  1854.  there  were  already 
several  thousand  settlers  on  the  ground  and  others 
were    continually    arriving.     He    appointeni    the 
29th  of  November  for  the  election  of  a  delegate 
to  Congress.     On  that  day  several  hundred  Mis- 
sourians  came  into  the  Territory  and  voted.    There 
was  no  violence  and  no  contest;  the  free-state  men 
had  no  separate  candidate.    Notwithstanding  the 
violence  of  language  used  by  opposing  factions, 
notwithstanding  the  organization  of  secret  ^ocie- 
t.es  pledg«l  to  drive  out  all  Northern  intruders 
there  was  no  serious  disturbance  until  March  3o' 
1855.  the  day  appointed  for  the  election  of  mem- 
bers of  the  territorial  Legislature.   On  that  day  the 
Missourians  came  full  five  thousand  strong,  armed 
with  guns,  bowie-knives,  and  revolvers.   They  met 
With  no  resistance  from  the  residents,  who  were  un- 
armed.    They  took  charge  of  the  precincts  and 
cho.se  pro-slavery  delegates  with  one  exception. 
Governor  Reeder  protested  and  recommended  to 
the  precincts  the  filing  of  protests.     Onlv  seven 
responded,  however,  and  iu  these  cases  new  elec- 
tions were  held  and  contesting  delegates  elected 


;-^*s»«=.. 


"BLEEDING  KANSAS"  158 

The  Governor  is-sued  certificates  to  these  and  to  ail 
those  who  in  other  precincts  had  been  chosen  by 
the  horde  from  Missouri.  When  the  Legislature 
met  in  July,  the  seven  contests  were  decided  in 
favor  of  the  pro-slavery  party,  the  single  free- 
state  member  resigned,  and  the  assembly  was 
unanimous. 

Governor  Reeder  fully  expected  that  President 
Pierce  would  nullify  the  election,  and  to  this  end 
he  made  a  journey  to  Washington  in  April.  On 
the  way  he  delivered  a  public  address  at  Easton, 
Pennsylvania,  describing  in  lurid  colors  the  out- 
rage which  had  been  perpetrated  upon  the  people 
of  Kansas  by  the  "border  ruffians"  from  Mis- 
souri, and  asserting  that  the  accounts  in  the  North- 
ern press  had  not  been  exaggerated. 

While  Governor  Reeder  in  contact  with  the 
actual  events  in  Kansas  was  l>ecoming  an  active 
Free-.soiler,  President  Pierce  in  as.sociation  with 
Jefferson  Davis  and  others  of  his  party  was  de- 
veloping active  sympathies  with  the  people  of 
western  Missouri.  To  the  Presi<lent  this  invasion 
of  territory  west  of  the  slave  State  by  Northern 
men  aided  by  Northern  corporations  seemed  a 
violation  of  the  Kan.sa.s-Nebraska  Act,  and  he 
sought  to  induce  Reeder  to  resign.    This,  however, 


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the  Governor  positively  refused  to  do  unless  the 
President  would  formally  approve  his  conduct  in 
Kansas- an  endorsement  which  required  more 
fortitude  than  President  Pierce  possessed.  On  his 
return  to  Kansas,  determined  to  do  what  he  could 

called  the  Legislature  to  meet  at  Pawnee,  a  point 
far  removed  from  the  Missouri  border.     Imme- 
diatdy  upon  their  organization  at  that  place  the 
members  of  the  Legislature  adjourned  to  meet  at 
S^hawnee.  near  ti.e  border  of  Missouri.   The  Cover 
nor.  who  de.  ided  that  this  action  was  illegal,  then 
refused  to  recognize  the  Assembly  at  the  new  place. 
A  deadlock  thus  ensued  which  was  broken  on  the 
15th  of  August  by  the  removal  of  Governor  Reeder 
and  the  appointment  of  Wilson  Shannon  of  Ohio 
in  nis  place. 

In  the  meantime  the  territorial  Legislature  had 
adjourned,  having  "enacted"  an  elaborate  pro- 
slavery  code  made  up  from  the  slave  code  of  Mis- 
sour,  with  a  number  of  special  adaptations.    For 
example,  it  was  made  a  penitentiary  offense  to 
deny  by  speaking  or  writing,  or  by  printing,  or  by 
introducmg  any  printed  matter,  the  right  of  per- 
sons  to  hold  slaves  in  the  Territory;  no  man  was 
el.g.ble  to  jury  service  who  was  conscientiously 


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"BLEEDING  KANSAS"  155 

opposed  to  holding  s'aves;  and  lawyers  were  bound 
by  oath  to  support  the  territorial  statutes. 

The  free-state  men,  with  the  approval  of  Reeder, 
refused  to  recognize  the  Legislature  and  inaugu- 
rated a  movement  in  the  fall  of  1855  to  adopt  a  con- 
stitution and  to  organize  a  provisional  territorial 
Government  preparatory  to  admission  as  a  State, 
following  in  this  respect  the  procedure  in  Califor- 
nia and  Michigan.  A  convention  met  in  Topeka 
in  October,  1855,  and  completed  on  the  11th  of 
November  the  draft  of  a  constitution  which  pro- 
hibited slavery.  On  the  15th  of  December  the 
constitution  was  approved  by  a  practically  un- 
animous vote,  only  free-state  men  taking  part 
in  the  ek ,  tion.  A  month  later  a  Legislature  was 
elected  and  at  the  same  time  Charles  Robinson 
was  elected  Governor  of  the  new  commonwealth. 
In  the  previous  October,  Reeder  had  been  chosen 
Free-soil  delegate  to  Congress.  The  Topeka  free- 
state  Legislature  met  on  the  4th  of  March,  1856, 
and  after  petitioning  Congress  to  admit  Kansas 
under  the  Topeka  constitution,  adjourned  until 
the  4th  of  July  pending  the  action  of  Congress. 
Thus  at  the  end  of  two  years  two  dis*"not  Govern- 
ments had  come  into  existence  within  the  Territory 
of  Kansas. 


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156        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

It  speaks  volumes  for  the  self-control  and  mod- 
eration of  the  two  parties  that  no  hostile  encounter 
had  occurred  between  the  contestants.    WTien  the 
armed  Missourians  came  in  March,  1855,  the  un- 
armed settlers  oflPered  no  resistance.    Afterward, 
however,  they  supplied  themselves  with  Sharp's 
rifles  and  organized  a  militia.    With  the  advent  of 
Governor  Shannon  in  September,  1855,  the  pro- 
slavery  position  was  much  strengthened.    In  No- 
vember, in  a  quarrel  over  a  land  claim,  a  free-state 
settler  by  the  name  of  Dow  was  killed.    The  mur- 
derer escaped,  but  a  friend  of  the  victim  was  ac- 
cused of  uttering  threats  against  a  friend  of  the 
murderer.   For  this  oflFense  a  posse  led  by  Sheriff 
Jones,  a  Missourian,  seized  him,  and  would  have 
carried  hini  away  if  fourteen  free-state  men  had  not 
"persuaded"  the  Sheriff  to  surrender  his  prisoner. 
This  interference  was  acceptcu  by  the  Missouri- 
ans as  a  signal  for  battle.    The  rescuers  must  be 
arrested  and  punished.    A  large  force  of  infuriated 
Missourians  and  pro-slavery  settlers  assembled  for 
a  raid  upon  the  town  of  Lawrence.    In  the  mean- 
time the  Lawrence  militia  planned  and  executed  a 
systematic  defence  of  the  town.    When  the  two 
armies  came  within  speaking  uistance,  a  parley 
ensued  in  which  the  Governor  took  a  leading  part 


BLEEDING  KANSAS" 


157 


in  settling  the  aflPair  with^^ut  a  hostile  shot.  This  is 
known  in  Kansas  history  as  the  "  VVakarusa  War." 
The  progress  of  aflFdirs  in  Kansas  was  followeu 
with  intense  interest  ir  all  parts  of  the  country. 
North  and  South  vied  with  each  other  in  the  en- 
couragement of  emigration  to  Kansas  Colore! 
Buford  of  Alabama  sold  a  large  number  of  slaves 
and  devoted  the  proceeds  to  meeting  the  expense 
of  conducting  a  troop  of  three  hundred  men  to 
Kansas  in  the  winter  of  1856.  They  went  armed 
with  "the  sword  of  the  spirit,"  and  all  provided 
with  Bibles  supplied  by  the  leading  churches. 
Arrived  in  the  territory,  they  were  duly  furnished 
with  more  worldly  weapons  and  were  drilled  for 
action.  About  the  same  time  a  parallel  incident 
is  said  to  have  occurred  in  New  Haven,  Connec- 
ticut. A  deacon  in  one  of  the  churches  had  en- 
listed a  company  of  seventy  bound  for  Kansas.  A 
meeting  was  held  in  the  church  to  raise  money  to 
defray  expenses.  The  leader  of  the  company  de- 
clared that  they  also  needed  rifles  for  self-defense. 
Forthwith  Professor  Siiiiman,  of  the  University, 
subscribed  one  Sharp's  rifle,  and  others  followed 
with  like  pledges.  Finally  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
who  was  the  speaker  of  the  occasion,  rose  and 
promised  that,  if  twenty-five  rifles  were  pledged 


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W8        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

on  the  spot.  Plymouth  Church  in  Brooklyn  would 
be  responsible  for  the  remaining  twenty-five  that 
were  needed.  He  had  already  said  in  a  previous 
address  that  for  the  slaveholders  of  Kansas,  Sharp's 
rifles  were  a  greater  moral  agency  than  the  Bible. 
This  led  to  the  designation  of  the  weapons  as 
"Beecher's  Bibles."  Such  was  the  spirit  which 
prevailed  in  the  two  sections  of  the  country. 

President  Pierce  had  now  become  intensely  hos- 
tile towards  the  free-state  inhabitants  of  Kansas. 
Having   recognized   the   Legislature    elected   on 
March  30.  1855,  as  the  legitimate  Government, 
he  sent  a  special  message  to  Congress  on  January 
24,  1856,  in  which  he  characterized  as  revolution- 
ary the  movement  of  the  free-state  men  to  organ- 
ize a  separate  Government  in  Kansas.    From  the 
President's  point  of  view,  the  emissaries  of  the 
New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Association  were  un- 
lawful  invaders.    In  this  position  he  not  only  had 
the  support  of  the  South,  but  was  powerfully 
seconded  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  other  North- 
ern Democrats. 

The  attitude  of  the  Administration  at  Washing- 
ton was  a  source  of  great  encouragement  to  Sheriff 
Jones  and  his  associates,  who  were  anxious  to 
wreak  their  vengeance  on  the  city  of  Lawrence  for 


"BLEEDING  KANSAS"  189 

the  outcome  of  the  Wakarusa  War.  Jones  came 
to  Lawrence  apparently  for  the  express  purpose  of 
picking  a  quarrel,  for  he  revived  the  old  dispute 
about  the  -escuing  party  of  the  previous  fall.  As  a 
consequence  one  enraged  opponent  slapped  him  in 
the  face,  and  at  last  an  unknown  assassin  entered 
the  sheriff's  tent  by  night  and  inflicted  a  revolver 
wound  in  his  back.  Though  the  citizens  of  Law- 
rence were  greatly  chagrined  at  this  event  and 
offered  a  reward  for  the  discover}'  of  the  assailant, 
the  attack  upon  the  sheriff  was  made  the  signal  for 
drastic  procedure  against  the  town  of  Lawrence. 
A  grand  jury  found  indictments  for  treason  against 
Reeder,  Robinson,  and  other  leading  citizens  of 
the  town.  The  United  States  marshal  gave  notice 
that  he  expected  resistance  in  making  arrests  and 
called  upon  all  law-abiding  citizens  of  the  Terri- 
tory to  aid  in  executing  the  law.  It  was  a  welcome 
summons  to  the  pro-slavery  forces.  Not  only  local 
militia  companies  responded  but  also  Buford's 
company  and  various  companies  from  Missouri, 
in  all  more  than  seven  hundred  men,  with  two 
cannon.  It  had  always  been  the  set  purpose  of  the 
free-state  men  not  to  resist  federal  authority  b,'' 
force,  unless  as  a  last  resort,  and  they  had  no  ir 
tention  of  opposing  the  marshal  in  making  arrests. 


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160        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

He  performed  his  duty  without  hindrance  and  then 
placed  the  armed  troops  under  the  command  of 
Sheriff  Jones,  who  proceeded  first  to  destroy  the 
printing-press  of  the  town  of  Lawrence.  Then, 
against  the  protest  of  the  marshal  and  Colonel 
Buford,  the  vindictive  sheriff  trained  his  guns  upon 
the  new  hotel  which  was  the  pride  of  the  city;  the 
ruin  of  the  building  was  made  complete  by  fire, 
while  a  drunken  mob  pillaged  the  town. 

On  May  22.  1856,  the  day  following  the  attack 
upon  Lawrence.  Charles  Sumner  was  struck  down 
in  the  United  States  Senate  on  account  of  a  speech 
mace  in  defense  of  the  rights  of  Kansas  settlers. 
The  two  events,  which  were  reported  at  the  same 
time  in  the  daily  press,  furnished  the  key-note  to 
the  presidential  campaign  of  that  year,  for  nomin- 
ating conventions  followed   in  a  few   days  and 
"bleeding  Kansas"  was  the  all-absorbing  issue. 
In  spite  of  the  destruction  of  property  in  Lawrence 
and  the  arrest  of  the  leaders  of  the  free-state  party, 
Kansas  had  not  oeen  plunged  into  a  state  of  civil 
war.   The  free-state  party  had  fired  no  hostile  shot. 
Governor  Robinson  and  his  associates  still  relied 
upon  public  opinion  and  they  accepted  the  wanton 
attack  upon  Lawrence  as  the  best  assurance  that 
they  would  yet  win  their  cause  by  legal  means. 


•  BLEEDLN  G  KANS  V  S  "  161 

A  change,  however,  soon  tooK  place  which  is 
associated  with  the  entrance  of  John  Brown  into 
the  history  of  Kansas.  Brown  and  his  sons  were 
living  at  Osawatomie,  some  thirty  miles  south  of 
Lawrence.  They  were  present  at  the  Wakarusa 
War  in  December,  1855,  and  were  on  their  way  to 
the  defense  of  Lawrence  on  May  21,  1856,  when 
they  were  informed  that  the  town  had  been  de- 
stroyed. Three  days  after  this  event  Brown  and 
his  sons  with  two  or  three  others  made  a  midnight 
raid  upon  their  pro-slavery  neighbors  living  in  the 
Pottawatomie  valley  and  slew  five  men.  The  au- 
thors of  this  deed  were  not  certainly  known  until 
the  publication  of  a  confession  of  one  of  the  party 
in  1879,  twenty  years  after  the  chief  actor  had  won 
the  reputation  of  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  liberty. 
The  Browns,  however,  were  suspected  at  the  time; 
warrants  were  out  for  their  arrest;  and  their  homes 
were  destroyed. 

For  more  than  three  months  after  this  incident, 
Xansas  was  in  a  state  of  war;  in  fact,  two  distinct 
varieties  of  warfare  were  carried  on.  Publicly 
organized  companies  on  both  sides  engaged  in 
acts  of  attack  and  defense,  while  at  the  same  time 
irresponsible  secret  bands  were  busy  in  violent  re- 
prisals, in  plunder  and  assassination.     In  both  of 


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168        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

these  forms  of  wurfarc,  the  froe-stiite  inon  proved 
themselves  fully  eqiml  to  their  opiwnents,  and 
Governor  Shannon  wa.s  entirely  unable  to  cope 
with  the  situation.  It  is  estimated  that  two  hun- 
dred men  were  slain  and  two  mill.^n  dollars'  v*^  rth 
of  property  was  destroyed. 

The  state  of  aflFairs  in  Kansas  served  to  win 
many  Northern  Democrats  to  the  support  of  the 
Republicans.     The  Administration  at  Washington 
was  held  responsible  for  the  violence  and  bloo<lshed. 
The  Democratic  lead«  is  in  the  political  campaign, 
determined  now  upon  a  complete  change  in  the 
Government  of  the  Territory,  appointed  J.  W. 
3eary  as  Governor  and  placed  General  Smith  in 
charge  of  the  troops.    The  new  incumbents,  both 
from  Pennsylvania,  enterc<l  upon  their  labors  early 
in  S  jptember,  and  before  the  October  state  elec- 
tions Geary  was  able  to  report  that  peace  reigned 
throughout  the  Territory.     A  prompt  reaction  in 
favor   of    the    Democrats   followed.     Buchanan, 
their  presidential  candidate,  rejoice      n  the  fact 
that  order  had  been  restored  by  two  citizens  of 
his  own  State.     It  was  now  very  generally  con- 
ceded that  Kansas  would  become  a  free  State,  and 
intimate  associates  of  Buchanan  assured  the  public 
that  he  was  himself  of  that  opinion  and  that  if 


••BLEEI)IN(i  KANSAS"  16S 

elected  he  wouhl  insure  to  the  fn-e-Mtate  party 
even-haiuied  justice.  Thou.sands  of  voters  were 
thus  won  to  Huchunan's  support.  There  was  a 
general  distrust  of  the  Republican  candidate  iva 
a  man  lacking  political  experience,  and  a  strong 
conservative  reaction  against  thi*  idea  of  electing 
a  President  bj  the  votes  of  only  one  section  of  the 
country.  At  the  election  in  November,  Buchanan 
received  a  majority  of  sixty  of  the  electoral  votes 
over  Fremont,  but  in  the  popular  vote  he  fell  short 
of  a  majority  by  nearly  4(»0,000.  Fillmore,  candi- 
date of  the  Whig  and  the  American  parties,  re- 
ceived 874,000  votes. 

There  was  still  profound  distrust  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Territory  of  Kansas,  and  the  free- 
state  settlers  refused  to  vote  at  the  election  set 
for  the  choosing  of  a  new  territorial  Legislature 
in  October.  The  result  was  another  pro-slavery 
assembly.  Governor  Geary,  however,  determined 
to  secure  and  enforce  just  treatment  of  both  parties. 
He  was  at  once  brought  into  violent  conflict  with 
the  L*^"islature  in  an  experience  which  was  almost 
an  ey  .  counterpart  of  that  of  Governor  Reeder; 
and  Washington  did  not  support  his  efforts  to  se- 
cure fair  dealings.  A  pro-slavery  deputation  visited 
President  Pierce  in  February,  1857   and  returned 


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164         THE  ANTF  SLAVKRY  CRl  SADE 

with  the  as-surunce  tlml  (tovcriior  (Jciiry  would  h 
removt-*!.  Without  waiting  for  thv  Prrsich'nt  t 
act,  deary  ro.siffrn'cl  in  di.sjfu.st  on  the  4th  of  Marcl 
Of  the  three  (iovernors  whom  Pres-dent  Pierc 
appointed,  two  hecame  active  .supiHirter.s  of  th 
free-state  party  and  a  third,  Governor  Shannor 
fle<l  from  the  territory  in  mortal  terror  lest  h 
should  be  slain  by  members  of  the  party  which  h 
had  tried  to  serve. 


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CIIAnKIl  XI 


(  HAKLKS  hum:  £M 


Tiiu  rcul  successor  tu  John  (juincy  Adams  us  the 
prolugonist  of  the  unti-sluvery  cuuse  in  Congress 
proved  to  be  not  Sewurd  hut  Charles  Sumner 
ef  Mussuchu>i"tts.  Tliis  newcomer  enteresl  the 
Senate  without  previous  h'gi.shitive  experience  but 
with  an  unusual  equipment  for  the  r6le  he  was  to 
play.  A  graduate  of  Hurvurt'  College  »it  the  age 
of  nineteen,  he  hud  entered  upon  the  study  of  law 
in  the  newly  organized  law  school  in  which  Joseph 
Story  held  one  of  the  two  professorships.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1834,  but  three  years  later 
he  left  his  i.lender  law  pruc  lice  for  a  1'  •  "»  perio.i 
of  European  travel.  This  three  year  sojourn 
brought  him  into  intimate  t(  uch  with  the  lead- 
ing spirits  in  arts,  letters,  an  '  public  life  in 
England  and  on  the  Cr:  'nent,  and  thus  ripened 
his  talents  to  their  full  maturity.  He  returned 
to  his  law  practice   poor  in  pocket  but  rich  in 

165 


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166        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

the  possession  of  lifelong  friendships  and  happy 
memories. 

Sumner's  political  career  did  not  begin  until 
1847,  when  as  a  WTiig  he  not  only  opposed  any 
further  extension  of  slavery  but  strove  to  commit 
his  party  to  the  policy  of  emancipation  in  all  the 
States.    Failing  in  this  attempt,  Sumner  became 
an  active  Free-soiler  in  1848.    He  was  twice  a  can- 
didate for  Congress  on  the  Free-soil  ticket  but 
failed  of  election.    In  1851  he  was  elected  to  the 
United  States  Senate  by  a  coalition  between  his 
party  and  the  Democrats.    This  is  the  only  public 
office  he  ever  held,  but  he  was  continuously  re- 
elected until  his  death  in  1874. 

John  Quincy  Adams  had  addressed  audiences 
trained  in  the  old  school,  which  did  not  defend 
slavery  on  moral  grounds.  Charles  Sumner  faced 
audiences  of  the  new  school,  which  upheld  the  in- 
stitution as  a  righteous  moral  order.  This  explains 
the  chief  difl  >nce  in  the  attitude  of  the  two  lead- 
ers. Sumner,  like  Adams,  began  as  an  opponent 
of  pro-slavery  aggression,  but  he  went  farther:  he 
attacked  the  institution  itself  as  a  great  moral 
evil. 

As  a  constitutional  lawyer  Sumner  is  not  the 
equal  of  his  predecessor,  Daniel  Webster.    He  is 


t! 


CHARLES  SUMNER  167 

less  original,  less  convincing  in  the  enunciation  of 
broad  general  principles.  He  appears  rather  as 
a  special  pleader  marshaling  all  available  forces 
against  the  one  institution  which  assailed  the 
Union.  In  this  particular  work,  he  surpassed  all 
others,  for,  with  his  unbounded  industry,  he  per- 
mitted no  precedent,  no  legal  advantage,  no  inci- 
dent of  history,  no  fact  in  current  politics  fitted  to 
strengthen  his  cause,  to  escape  his  untiring  search. 
He  showed  a  marvelous  skill  in  the  selection,  ar- 
rangement, and  presentation  of  his  materials,  and 
for  his  models  he  took  the  highest  forms  of  classic 
forensic  utterance. 

Sumner  exhibited  the  ordinary  aloofness  and 
lack  of  familiarity  with  actual  conditions  in  the 
South  which  was  characteristic  of  the  New  England 
abolitionist.  He  perceived  no  race  problem,  no 
peculiar  difficulty  in  the  readjustments  of  master 
and  slave  which  were  involved  in  emancipation, 
and  he  ignored  all  obstacles  to  the  accomplishment 
of  his  ends.  Webster's  arraignment  of  South  Caro- 
lina was  directed  against  an  alleged  erroneous 
dogma  and  only  incidentally  affected  personal 
morality.  The  reaction,  therefore,  was  void  of 
bitter  resentment.  Sumner's  charges  were  directed 
against  alleged  moral  turpitude,  and  the  classic 


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168        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

form  and  scrupulous  regard  for  parliamentary 
rules  which  he  observed  only  added  to  the  feeling 
of  personal  resentment  on  the  part  of  his  oppo- 
nents. Some  of  the  defenders  of  slavery  were  them- 
selves devoted  students  of  the  chissics,  but  they 
found  that  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  furnished 
nothing  suited  to  their  purpose.  The  result  was  a 
humiliating  exhibition  of  weakness,  personal  abuse, 
and  vindictiveness  on  their  part. 

There  was  a  conspiracy  of  silence  on  the  slavery 
question  in  1852.  Each  of  the  national  parties 
was  definitely  committed  to  the  support  of  the 
compromise  and  especially  to  the  faithful  observ- 
ance of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Free-soilers  had 
distinctly  declined  in  numbers  and  influence  dur- 
ing the  four  preceding  years.  Only  a  handful  of 
members  in  each  House  of  Congress  remained  un- 
aflSliated  with  the  parties  whose  platforms  had  or- 
dained silence  on  the  one  issue  of  chief  public  con- 
cern. It  was  by  a  mere  accident  in  Massachusetts 
politics  that  Charles  Sumner  was  sent  to  the  Senate 
as  a  man  free  on  all  public  questions. 

While  the  parties  were  making  their  nominations 
for  the  Presidency,  Sumner  sought  diligently  for 
an  opportunity  in  the  Senate  to  give  utterance  to 
the  sentiments  of  his  party  on  the  repeal  of  the 


CHARLES  SUMNER  169 

Fugitive  Slave  Act.  But  not  until  late  in  August 
did  he  overcome  the  resistance  of  the  combined 
opposition  and  gain  the  floor.  The  watchmen  were 
caught  off  guard  when  Sumner  introduced  an 
amendment  to  an  appropriation  bill  which  enabled 
him  to  deliver  a  carefully  prepared  address,  several 
hours  in  length,  calling  for  the  repeal  of  the  law. 
The  first  part  of  this  speech  is  devoted  to  the 
general  topic  of  the  relation  of  the  national  Gov- 
ernment to  slavery  and  was  made  in  answer  to  the 
demand  of  Calhoun  and  his  followers  for  the  direct 
national  recognition  of  slavery.  For  such  a  de- 
mand Sumner  found  no  warrant.  By  the  decision 
of  Lord  Mansfield,  said  he,  "the  state  of  slavery" 
was  declared  to  be  "of  such  a  nature,  that  it  is  in- 
capable of  being  introduced  on  any  reasons,  moral 
or  political,  but  only  by  positive  law.  ...  it  is  so 
odious,  that  nothing  can  be  suffered  to  support  it 
but  positive  law."  Adopting  the  same  principle, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Mississippi, 
a  tribunal  of  slaveholders,  asserted  that  "slavery 
is  condemned  by  reason  and  the  Laws  of  Nature. 
It  exists,  and  can  only  exJst,  through  municipal 
regulations."  So  also  declared  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Kentucky  and  numerous  other  tribunals.  This 
aspect  of  the  subject  furnished  Sumner  occasion 


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170        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

for  a  masterly  array  of  all  the  utterances  in  favor 
of  liberty  to  be  found  in  the  Constitution,  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  in  the  constitutional 
conventions,  in  the  principles  of  common  law.    All 
these  led  up  to  and  supported  the  one  grand  con- 
clusion that,  when  Washington  took  the  oath  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  "slavery  existed 
nowhere  on  the  national  territory"  and  therefore 
is  in  no  respect  a  national  institution."    Apply 
the  principles  of  the  Constitution  in  their  purity, 
then,  and  "in  all  national  territories  slavery  will 
be  impossible.    On  the  high    eas,  under  the  na- 
tional flag,  slavery   will  be  impossible.    In   the 
District  of  Columbia,  slavery  will  instantly  cease. 
Inspired  by  these  principles,  Congress  can  give 
no  sanction  to  slavery  by  the  admission  of  new 
slave  States.    Nowhere  under  the  Constitution  can 
the  Nation  by  legislation  or  otherwise,  support 
slavery,  hunt  slaves,  or  hold  property  in  man. 
...     As  slavery  is  banished  from  the  national 
jurisdiction,  it  will  cease  to  vex  our  national  poli- 
tics.   It  may  linger  in  the  States  as  a  local  institu- 
tion;  but   it   will   no   longer   engender   national 
animosities  when  it  no  longer  demands  national 
support." 
The   second  part   of   Sumner's   address   dealt 


CHARLES  SUMNER  171 

directly  with  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1850.  It  is 
much  less  convincing  antl  suggests  more  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  special  pleader  with  a  diffi- 
cult case.  Sumner  here  undertook  to  prove  that 
Congress  exceeded  its  powers  when  it  presumed  to 
lay  down  rules  for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves, 
and  this  task  exceeded  even  his  power  as  u  con- 
stitutional lawyer. 

The  circumstances  under  which  Sumner  at- 
tacked slavery  were  such  as  to  have  alarmed  a  less 
self-centered  man,  for  the  two  years  following  the 
introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill  were  marked 
by  the  most  acrimonious  debate  in  the  history  of 
Congress,  and  by  physical  encounters,  challenges, 
and  threats  of  violence.  But  though  Congressmen 
carried  concealed  weapons,  Sumner  went  his  way 
unarmed  and  apparently  in  complete  unconcern  as 
to  any  personal  danger,  though  it  is  known  that 
he  was  fully  aware  that  in  the  faithful  performance 
of  what  he  deemed  to  be  his  duty  he  was  incurring 
the  risk  of  assassination. 

The  pro-slavery  party  manifested  on  all  occa- 
sions a  disposition  to  make  the  most  of  the  weak 
point  in  Sumner's  constitutional  argument  against 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  He  was  accused  of  takin^j 
an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  though  at  the 


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172        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

same  time  intending  to  violate  one  of  its  provisions. 
In  a  discussion,  in  June,  1854,  over  a  petition  pray- 
ing for  the  repeiil  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  Sena- 
tor Butler  of  South  Carolina  put  the  question 
directly   to  Senator  Sumner  whether  he   would 
himself  unite  with  others  in  returning  a  fugitive 
to  his  master.    Sumner's  quick  reply  was,  "Is  thy 
servant  a  dog  that  he  should  do  this  thing?  "    En- 
raged Southerners  followed  this  remark  with  a 
most  bitter  onslaught  upon  Sumner  which  lasted 
for  two  days.    When  Sumner  again  got  the  floor, 
he  said  in  reference  to  Senator  Butler's  remark: 
"In  fitful  phrase,  which  seemed  to  come  from  un- 
conscious excitement,  so  common  with  the  Senator, 
he  shot  forth  various  cries  about   'dogs,'  and, 
among  other  things,  asked  if  there  was  any  'dog' 
in  the  Constitution?    The  Senator  did  not  seem  to 
bear  in  mind,  through  the  heady  currents  of  that 
moment  that,  by  the  false  interpretation  he  fastens 
upon  the  Constitution,  he  has  helped  to  nurture 
there  a  whole  kennel  of  Carolina  bloodhounds, 
trained,  with  savage  jaw  and  insatiable  in  scent, 
for  the  hunt  of  flying  bondmen.     No,  sir,  I  do  not 
believe  that  there  is  any  'kennel  of  bloodhounr?  ,' 
or  even  any  *  dog '  in  th.  Constitution."   Thereafter 
offensive  personal  references  between  the  Senators 


CHARLES  SUMNER  173 

from  Massachuiietts  and  South  Carolina  became 
habitual.  These  personalities  were  a  source  of 
regret  to  many  of  Sumner's  best  friends,  but 
they  fill  a  small  place,  after  all,  in  his  great  work. 
Nor  were  they  the  chief  source  of  rancor  on  the 
part  of  his  enemies,  for  Southern  orators  were 
accustomed  to  personalities  in  debate.  Sumner  was 
feared  and  hated  principally  because  his  presence 
in  Congress  endangered  the  institution  of  slavery. 
Sumner's  speech  on  the  crime  against  Kansas 
was  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  effort  of  his 
career.  It  had  been  known  for  many  weeks  that 
Sumner  was  preparing  to  speak  upon  the  burning 
question,  and  his  friends  had  already  expressed 
anxiety  for  his  personal  safety.  For  the  larger 
part  of  two  days,  May  19  and  20, 1856,  he  held  the 
reluctant  attention  of  the  Senate.  For  the  delivery 
of  this  speech  he  chose  a  time  whic^  was  most 
opportune.  The  crime  against  Kansas  had,  in  a 
sense,  culminated  in  March  of  the  previous  year, 
but  the  settlers  had  refused  to  submit  to  the 
Government  set  up  by  hostile  invaders.  They  had 
armed  themselves  for  the  defense  of  their  rights, 
had  elected  a  Governor  and  a  Legislature  by  volun- 
tary association,  had  called  a  convention,  and  ha 
adopted  a  constitution  preparatory  to  admission 


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174        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

to  the  Union.  That  constitution  wus  now  before 
the  Senate  for  approval.  Prosidonl  Pierce,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  and  all  the  Southern  leaders  had  de- 
cided to  treat  as  treasonable  acts  the  efforts  of 
Kansas  settlers  to  secure  an  orderly  government. 
Their  plans  for  the  arrest  of  the  leaders  were  well 
advanced  and  the  arrests  were  actually  made  on 
the  day  after  Sumner  had  concluded  his  speech. 

A  paragraph  in  the  address  is  prophetic  of  what 
occurred  within  a  week.    Douglas  had  introduced 
a  bill  recognizing  the  Legislature  chosen  by  the 
Missourians  as  the  legal  Government  and  provid- 
ing for  the  formation  of  a  constitution  under  its 
initiative  at  some  future  date.    After  describing 
this  proposed  action  as  a  continuation  of  the  crime 
against  Kansas,  Sumner  declared :  "Sir,  you  cannot 
expect  that  the  people  of  Kansas  will  submit  to  the 
usurpation  which  this  bill  sets  up  and  bids  them 
bow  before,  as  the  Austrian  tyrant  set  up  the  ducal 
hat  in  the  Swiss  market-place.    If  you  madly  per- 
severe, Kansas  will  not  be  without  her  William 
Tell,  who  v/ill  refuse  at  all  hazards  to  recognize  the 
tyrannical  edict;  and  this  will  be  the  beginning  of 
cJvil  war." 

To  keep  historical  sequence  clear  at  this  point, 
all  thought  of  John  Brown  should  be  eliminated. 


h' 


CHARLES  SUMNER 


175 


for  he  was  then  unknown  to  the  public.  It  must 
be  remembered  tliat  Governor  Robinson  and  the 
free-state  settlers  were,  as  Sumner  probably  knew, 
prepared  to  resist  the  general  flovernment  as  soon 
as  there  should  be  a  clear  case  of  outrage  for  which 
the  Administration  at  Washington  could  be  held 
directly  responsible.  Such  a  case  occurrd  when 
the  United  States  marshal  placed  federal  troops 
in  the  hands  of  Sheriff  Jones  to  assist  in  looting  the 
town  of  Lawrence.  Governor  Robinson  no  longer 
had  any  scruples  in  advising  forcible  resistance  to 
all  who  used  force  to  impose  upon  Kansas  a  Gov- 
ernment which  the  people  had  rejected. 

In  the  course  of  his  address  Sumner  ^rompared 
Senators  Butler  and  Douglas  to  Don  Quixote  and 
Sanclio  Panza,  saying:  "The  Senator  from  South 
Carolina  has  read  many  books  of  chivalry,  and 
believes  himself  a  chivalrous  knight,  with  senti- 
ments of  honor  and  courage.  Of  course  he  has 
chosen  a  mistress  to  whom  he  has  made  his  vows, 
and  who,  though  ugly  to  others,  is  always  lovely 
to  him;  though  polluted  in  the  sight  of  the  world, 
is  chaste  in  his  sight.  I  mean  the  harlot  Slavery. 
Let  her  be  impeached  in  character,  or  any  proposi- 
tion be  made  to  shut  her  out  from  the  extension  of 
her  wantonness,  and  no  extravagance  of  manner  or 


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170        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

hardihood  of  assertion  is  then  too  groat  for  the 
Senator." 

When  Sumner  concIude«I,  the  gathering  storm 
broke  forth.    Cass  of  Michigan,  after  saying  that 
he  had  hstened  to  the  address  with  equal  sur- 
prise and  regret,  characterized  it  as  "the  most  un- 
American  and  unpatriotic  that  ever  grated  on  the 
ears  of  the  members  of  that  high  body."    Douglas 
and  Mason  were  personal  and  abusive.    Douglas, 
recalling   Sumner's    answer    to  Senator  Butler's 
question  wliether  he  would  assist  in  returning  a 
slave,  renewcHi  the  charge  made  two  years  earlier 
that  Sumner  had  vioIate<l  his  oath  of  office.    This 
attack  called  forth  from  Sumner  another  attempt 
to  defend  the  one  weak  point  in  his  speech  of  1852 
for  he  was  always  irritated  by  reference  to  this 
subject,  and  at  the  same  time  he  enjoyed  a  fine 
facility  in  tlie  use  of  language  which  irritated  others 
One  utterance  in  Douglas's  reply  to  Sumner  is  of 
special  significance  in  view  of  what  occurred  two 
days  later:  "Is  it  his  object  to  provoke  some  of  us 
to  kick  him  as  we  would  a  dog  in  the  street,  that 
he  may  get  sympathy  upon  the  just  chastisement.?" 
Two  days  later  Sumner  was  sitting  alone  at  his 
desk  in  the  Senate  chamber  after  adjournment 
when  Preston  Brooks,  a  nephew  of  Senator  Butler 


CHARLES  SUMNER  IT! 

und  a  member  of  the  lower  Hou.se,  entered  und 
accoiited  him  wiMi  the  .Uatement  thut  he  hud  reud 
Sumner's  speech  twice  und  thut  it  wus  u  libel  on 
South  Curolina  und  upon  u  kinsmun  of  his.  There- 
upon Brooks  followed  his  words  by  striking  Sum- 
ner on  the  head  with  u  cane.  Though  the  Senator 
was  dazed  and  blinded  ^^"  the  unexpected  attack, 
his  assailant  rained  blow  after  blow  until  he  had 
broken  the  cane  and  Sumner  lay  prostrate  and 
bleeding  ut  his  feet.  Brooks's  remarks  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  almost  a  month  after  the  event 
leave  no  doubt  of  his  determination  to  commit 
murder  had  he  failed  to  overcome  his  untugonist 
,vith  a  cane.  He  had  ulso  taken  the  precaution  to 
have  two  of  his  friends  ready  to  prcent  any  inter- 
ference before  the  punishment  was  completed. 
Toombs  of  Georgia  wi.  nessed  a  part  of  the  assault 
and  expressed  approval  of  the  act,  and  everywhere 
throughout  the  South,  in  the  public  pres^,  in  legis- 
lative halls,  in  public  meetings,  Brooks  was  hailed 
as  a  hero.  The  resolution  for  his  expulsion  intro- 
duced in  the  House  received  the  support  of  only 
one  vote  from  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line. 
A  large  majority  favored  the  rcoolution,  but  not 
the  required  two-thirds  majority.  Brooks,  how- 
ever, thought  best  to  resign  but  was  triumphantly 


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178        THE  ANTI.SL.\VERY  CRUSADE 

returned  to  his  seat  with  only  six  votes  against 
hini.    Nothing  was  left  undone  to  express  South- 
ern gratitude,  and  he  receivinl  gifts  of  canes  in- 
numerable as  synil>oIs  of  his  valor.    Yet  before  his 
death,  which  occurred  in  the  following  January 
he  confessed  to  his  friend  Orr  that  he  was  sick  of 
being  regarded  as  the  representative  of  bullies  and 
disgusttHlat  rweiving  testimonials  of  their  esteem. 
With  similar  unanimity  the  North  condemned 
and  resented  the  assault  that  had  been  made  uiK,n 
Sumner.     From  party  considerations,  if  for  no 
other  reasons,  Democrats  regretted  the  event.  Re- 
publicans saw  in  the  brutal   attack  and  in  the 
manner  of  its  reception  in  the  South  another  evi- 
dence of  the  irrepressible  conflict  bef  >m..  n  slavery 
and  freedom.     They  were  ready  to  take  u,    ihe 
issue  so  forcibly  presented  by  their  falien  leader. 
A  part  of  the  regular  order  of  exercises  at  public 
meetings  of  Republicans  was  to  express  sympathy 
with  their  wounded  champion  and  with  the  Kan- ' 
people  of  the  pillaged  town  of  Lawrence,  and  to 
adopt  ways  and  means  to  bring  to  an  <.nd  the  Ad- 
ministration which  tliey  held  responsible  for  these 
outrages.    Sumner,  though  silenced,  was  eloquent 
in  a  new  and  more  effective  way.     A  half  million 
copies  of  The  Crime  against  Kansas  were  printed 


CHARLES  SUMNER  179 

and  circulated.  ()n  the  issui-  thu>  prcsontwl, 
Northern  Democrats  Inranu'  convinced  tluit  their 
(h'fcat  at  the  p<>nding  elwiion  was  certain,  and 
their  leaeU-rs  instituted  the  (hange  in  their  pro- 
gram w!uch  has  been  described  in  a  previous  ehap- 
ter.  They  ha«l  made  an  end  of  the  war  in  Kansas 
and  drew  from  their  candichite  for  the  Prtvsideney 
the  assurance  that  ju.st  treatment  shouhl  at  last 
be  meted  out  to  harassed  Kansas. 

Though  Sumner's  injuries  were  at  first  regarded 
as  slight,  they  eventually  proved  to  be  extreniely 
serious.  After  two  attempts  to  resume  his  place 
in  the  Senate,  he  found  that  he  was  unable  to  re- 
main; yet  when  his  term  expired,  he  was  almost 
unanimously  reelected.  Much  of  his  time  for  three 
and  a  half  years  he  spent  in  Europe.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1859,  he  seemed  suffieientr-  recovered  to  re- 
sume senatorial  duties,  but  it  was  not  until  the 
following  June  that  he  again  addressed  the  Senate. 
On  that  occasion  he  delivered  his  last  great  philip- 
pic against  slavery.  The  subject  under  di>  \ission 
was  still  tlu'  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  free  State, 
and,  as  he  remarked  in  his  opening  sentences,  he 
resumed  the  discussion  precisely  where  he  had  left 
off  more  than  four  years  before. 

Sumner  had  assumed  the  task  of  uttering  a  final 


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18C         THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
word  against  slavery  as  barbarism  and  a  barrier 
to  civilization.     He  spoke  under  the  impelling 
power  of  a  conviction  in  his  God-given  mission  to 
utilize  a  great  occasion  to  the  full  and  for  a  noble 
end.    For  this  work  his  whole  life  had  been  a  prep- 
aration.    Accustomed  from  early  youth  to  spend 
ten  hours  a  day  with  books  on  law,  history,  and 
classic  literature,  he  knew  as  no  other  man  then 
knew  what  aid  the  past  could  oflPer  to  the  struggle 
for  freedom.    The  bludgeon  of  the  would-be  assas- 
sin had  not  impaired  his  memory,  and  four  years  of 
enforced  leisure  enabled  him  to  fulfill  his  highest 
ideals  of  perfect  oratorical  form.   Personalities  he 
eliminated  from  this  final  address,  and  blemishes 
he  pruned  away.     In  his  earlier  speeches  he  had 
been  limited  by  the  demands  of  the  particular  ques- 
tion under  discussion,  but  in  The  Barbarism  of 
Slavery  he  was  free  to  deal  with  the  general  subject, 
and  he  utilized  incidents  in  American  slavery  to 
demonstrate  the  general  upward  trend  of  history. 
The  orator  was  sustained  by  the  full  consciousness 
that  his  utterances  were  in  harmony  with  the 
grand  sweep  of  historic  truth  as  well  as  with  the 
spirit  of  the  present  age. 

Sumner  was  not  a  party  man  and  was  at  no  time 
in  compi  jte  harmony  with  his  coworkers.     It  was 


CHARLES  SUMNER  181 

always  a  question  whether  his  speeches  had  a 
favorable  efiFect  upon  the  immediate  action  of 
Congress;  there  can,  however,  be  no  doubt  of  the 
fact  that  the  larger  public  was  edified  and  in- 
fluenced. Copies  of  The  Crime  against  Kanms  and 
The  Barbarism  of  Slavery  were  printed  and  circu- 
lated by  the  million  and  were  eagerly  read  from 
beginning  to  end.  They  gave  final  form  to  the 
thoughts  and  utterances  of  many  political  leaders 
both  in  America  and  in  Europe.  More  than  any 
other  man  it  was  Charles  Sumner  who,  with  a 
wealth  of  historical  learning  and  great  skill  in 
forensic  art,  put  the  irrepressible  conflict  between 
slavery  and  freedom  in  its  prope.  setting  in  human 
history. 


Wi 


iiu 


4-. 'I 
l,.4| 


f- 


CHAPTER  XII 

KANSAS  AND  BUCHANAN 

In  view  of  the  presidential  election  of  1856  North- 
ern Democrats  entertained  no  doubts  that  Kansas, 
now    >L'cupied  by  a  majority  of  free-state  men, 
would  be  received  as  a  free  State  without  f-rther 
ado.    The  case  was  different  with  the  De.   ,crats 
of  western  Missouri,  already  for  ten  years   in 
close  touch  with  those  Southern  leaders  who  were 
determined  either  to  secure  new  safeguards  for 
slavery  or  to  form  an  independent  confederacy. 
Their  program  was  to  continue  their  efforts  to 
make  Kansas  a  slave  State  or  at  least  to  maintain 
the  disturbance  there  until  the  conditions  ap- 
peared favorable  for  secession. 

In  February,  1857,  the  pro-slavery  territorial 
Legislature  provided  for  the  election  of  delegates 
to  a  constitutional  convention,  but  Governor 
Geary  vetoed  the  act  because  no  provision  was 
made  for  submitting  the  proposed  constitution  to 

182 


KANSAS  AND  BUCHANAN  188 

the  vote  of  the  people.  The  bill  was  passed  over 
his  veto,  and  arrangements  were  made  for  regis- 
tration which  free-state  men  regarded  as  imperfect, 
inadequate,  or  fraudulent. 

President  Buchanan  undoubtedly  intended  to  do 
full  justice  to  the  people  of  Kansas.  To  this  end 
he  chose  Robert  J.  Walker,  a  Mississippi  Demo- 
crat, as  Governor  of  Kansas.  Walker  was  a  states- 
man of  high  rank,  who  had  been  associated  with 
Buchanan  in  the  Cabinet  of  James  K.  Polk.  Three 
times  he  refused  to  accept  the  office  ad  finally 
undertook  the  mission  only  from  a  sense  of  duty. 
Being  aware  of  the  fate  of  Governor  Geary,  Walker 
insisted  on  an  explicit  understanding  with  Bu- 
chanan that  his  policies  should  not  be  repudiated 
by  the  federal  Administration .  Late  in  May  he  went 
to  Kansas  with  high  hopes  and  expectations.  But 
the  free-state  party  had  persisted  in  the  repudia- 
tion of  a  Government  which  had  been  first  set  up 
by  an  invading  army  and,  as  they  tlicged,  had 
since  then  been  perpetuated  by  fraud.  They  had 
absolutely  refused  to  take  part  in  any  election 
called  by  that  Government  and  had  continued  lo 
keep  alive  their  own  legislative  assembly.  Despite 
Walker's  efforts  to  persuade  them  to  take  part 
in  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  constitutional 


i      > 


t 


hi 

'*  I 


i 
i 


184  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
convention,  they  resolutely  held  aloof.  Yet,  as 
they  became  convinced  that  he  was  acting  in 
good  faith,  they  did  participate  in  the  October 
elections  to  the  territorial  Legislature,  electing  nine 
out  of  the  thirteen  councilors  and  twenty-four  out 
of  the  thirty-nine  representatives.  Gross  frauds 
had  been  perpetrated  in  two  districts,  and  the 
Governor  made  good  his  promise  by  rejecting  the 
fraudulent  votes.  In  one  case  a  poll  list  had  been 
made  up  by  copying  an  old  Cincinnati  register. 

In  the  meantime,  thanks  to  the  abstention  of 
the  free-state  people,  the  pro-slavery  party  had 
secured  absolute  control  of  the  constituticiml  con- 
vention. Yet  there  was  the  most  absolute  assur- 
ance by  the  Governor  in  the  name  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States  that  no  constitution  would 
*■  sent  to  Congress  for  approval  which  had  not 
received  the  sanction  of  a  majority  of  the  voters 
of  the  Territory.  This  was  Walker's  reiterated 
promise,  and  Fresident  Buchanan  had  on  this 
point  been  equally  explicit. 

When,  therefore,  the  pro-slavery  constitutional 
convention  met  at  Lecompton  in  October,  Kansas 
had  a  free-state  Legislature  duly  elected.  To  make 
Kansas  still  a  slave  State  it  was  necessary  to  get 
rid  of  that  Legislature  and  of  the  Governor  through 


11  ri" 


KANSAS  AND  BUCHANAN 


185 


whose  agency  it  had  been  chosen,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  frame  a  constitution  which  would  secure 
the  approval  of  the  Buchanan  Administration. 
Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  all  this  was  actually 
accomplished. 

John  Calhoun,  who  had  been  chosen  president 
of  the  Lecompton  convention,  spent  some  time  in 
Washington  before  the  adjourned  meeting  of  the 
convention.  He  secured  the  aid  of  master-hands 
at  manipulation.  Walker  had  already  been  dis- 
credited at  the  White  House  on  account  of  his 
rejection  of  fraudulent  returns  at  the  October 
election  of  members  to  the  Legislature.  The  con- 
vention was  unwilling  to  take  further  chances  on  a 
matter  of  that  sort,  and  it  consequently  made  it  a 
part  of  the  constitution  that  the  president  of  the 
convention  should  have  entire  charge  of  the  elec- 
tion to  be  held  for  its  approval.  The  free-state 
Legislature  was  disposed  of  by  placing  in  the  con- 
stitution a  pro.'ision  that  all  existing  laws  should 
remain  in  force  until  the  election  of  a  Legislature 
provided  for  under  the  constitution. 

The  master-stroke  of  the  convention,  however, 
was  the  provision  for  submitting  the  constitution 
to  the  vote  of  the  people.  Vote  were  not  per- 
mitted to  accept  or  reject  the  instrument;  all  votes 


J       ? 


I,  .1 


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186        THE  ANTI-SL.\VERY  CRUSADE 
were  to  be  for  the  constitution   either   "with 
slavery  "  or  "  with  no  slavery."   But  the  document 
itself  recognized  slavery  as  already  existing  and 
declared  the  right  of  slave  property  like  other 
property  "before  and  higher  than  any  constitu- 
tional sanction."    Other  provisions  made  emanci- 
pation difficult  by  providing  in  any  case  for  com- 
plete monetary  remuneration  and  for  the  consent 
of  the  owners.    There  were  numerous  other  pro- 
visions offensive  to  free-state  men.    It  had  been 
rightly  surmised  that  they  would  take  no  part  in 
such  an  election  and  that  "the  constitution  with 
slavery"  would  be  approved.     The  vote  on  the 
constitution  was  set  for  the  21st  of  December. 
For  the  constitution  with  slavery  6226  votes  were 
recorded  and  569  for  the  constitution  without 
slavery. 

While  these  events  were  taking  place,  Walker 
went  to  Washington  to  enter  his  protest  but 
resigned  after  finding  only  a  hostile  reception  by 
the  President  and  his  Cabinet.  Stanton,  who  was 
acting  Governor  in  the  absence  of  Walker,  then 
called  together  the  free-state  Legislature,  which  set 
January  4,  1858,  as  the  date  for  approving  or  re- 
jecting the  Lecompton  Constitution.  At  this  elec- 
tion the  votes  cast  were  138  for  the  constitution 


.    Ur 


KANSAS  AND  BUCHANAN  187 

with  slavery,  24  for  the  constitution  without  slav- 
ery, and  10,226  against  the  constitution.  But 
President  Buchanan  had  become  thoroughly  com- 
mitted to  the  support  of  the  Lecompton  Constitu- 
tion. Disregarding  the  advice  of  the  new  Gov- 
ernor, he  sent  the  Lecompton  Constitution  to 
Congress  with  the  recommendation  that  Kansas 
be  admitted  to  the  Union  as  a  slave  State. 

Here  was  a  crisis  big  with  the  fate  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  if  not  of  the  Union.  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  had  already  given  notice  that  he  would 
oppose  the  Lecompton  Constitution.  In  favor  of 
its  rejection  he  made  a  notable  speech  which  called 
forth  the  bitterest  enmity  from  the  South  and 
arrayed  all  the  forces  of  the  Administration  against 
him.  Supporters  of  Douglas  were  removed  from 
oflSce,  and  anti-Douglas  men  were  put  in  their 
places.  In  his  fight  against  the  fraudulent  con- 
stitution Douglas  himself,  however,  still  had  the 
support  of  a  majority  of  Northern  Democrats, 
especially  in  the  Western  States,  and  that  of  all  the 
Republicans  in  Congress.  A  bill  to  admit  Kansas 
pj,.~od  the  Senate,  but  in  the  House  a  proviso  was 
attached  requiring  that  the  constitution  should 
first  be  submitted  to  the  people  of  Kansas  for 
acceptance  or  rejection.     This  amendment  was 


T 
i 


i 

j 


I'  ■ 


'^i 


r  • 


188        THE  ANTI-SLAVRRY  CRUSADE 
finally  accepted  by  tht  Senate  with  the  modifica- 
tion  that,  if  the  people  voted  for  the  constitution, 
the  State  should  have  a  large  don     '    ,  of  public 
land,  but  that  if  they  rejected  '  y  should  not 

be  admitted  as  a  State  until  the>  Lad  a  popula- 
tion large  enough  to  entitle  them  to  a  representa- 
tive in  the  lower  House.  The  vote  of  the  people 
was  cast  on  August  2,  1858,  and  the  constitution 
was  finally  rejected  by  a  majority  of  nearly  twelve 
thousand.  Thus  resulted  the  last  effort  to  impose 
slavery  on  the  people  of  Kansas. 

Although  the  war  between  slavery  and  freedom 
was  fought  out  in  miniature  in  Kansas,  the  imme- 
diate issue  was  the  preservation  of  slavery  in  Mis- 
souri.   This,  however,  involved  directly  the  pros- 
pect of  emancipation  in  other  border  States  and 
ultimate  complete  emancipation  in  all  the  States. 
The  issue  is  well  stated  in  a  Fourth  of  July  address 
which  Charles  Robinson  delivered  at  Lawrence, 
Kansas,  in  1855,  after  the  invasion  of  Missourians 
to  influence  the  March  e'ection  of  that  year,  but 
before  the  beginning  of  bloody  conflict: 

What  reason  is  given  for  the  cowardly  invasion  of  our 
rights  by  our  neighbors?  They  say  that  if  Kansas  is 
allowed  to  be  free  the  institution  of  slavery  in  their  own 
State  Will  be  m  danger If  the  people  of  Missouri 


M  K    i 


!'■  11 


KANSAS  AND  BUCHANAN 


IM 


make  it  necessary,  by  their  unlawful  course,  for  us  to 
establish  freedom  in  that  State  in  order  to  enjoy  the 
liberty  of  governing  ourselves  in  Kansas,  then  let  that 
be  the  issue.  If  Kansas  and  the  whole  North  must  be 
enslaved,  or  Missouri  become  free,  then  let  her  be  made 
free.  Aye!  and  if  to  be  free  ourselves,  slavery  must  be 
abolished  in  the  whole  country,  then  let  us  accept  that 
issue.  If  black  slavery  in  a  part  of  the  States  is  incom- 
patible with  white  freedom  in  any  State,  then  let  black 
slavery  be  abolished  from  all.  As  men  espousing  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  tb"  Fathers,  we  can  do 
nothing  else  than  accept  these  issues. 

The  men  who  saved  Kansas  to  freedom  were  not 
abolitionists  in  the  restricted  sense.  Governor 
Walker  found  in  1857  that  a  considerable  majority 
of  the  free-state  men  were  Democrats  and  that 
some  were  from  the  South.  Nearly  all  actual 
settlers,  from  whatever  source  they  came,  were 
free-state  men  who  felt  that  a  slave  was  a  burden 
in  such  a  country  as  Kansas.  For  example,  during 
the  first  winter  of  the  occupation  of  Kansas,  an 
owner  of  nineteen  slaves  was  himself  forced  to 
work  like  a  trooper  to  keep  them  from  freezing; 
and,  indeed,  one  of  them  did  freeze  to  death  and 
another  was  seriously  injured. 

In  spite  of  all  the  advertising  of  opportunity  and 
all  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  Southerners 
to  settle  in  Kansas,  at  no  time  did  the  number  of 


.^ 


i' 


A 


I 

I 


IH 


M 


100  THE  ANTI^LAVERY  CRUSADE 
slaves  in  the  Territory  reach  three  hundred.  The 
chmate  and  the  soil  made  for  freedom,  and  the 
Governors  were  not  the  only  persons  who  were 
converted  to  free-sUte  principles  by  residence  in 
the  Territory. 


i     f 


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The 
I  the 
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le  in 


V 


CHAPTER  XIL 


THE   SUPREME   COURT    IN    POLITICH 

The  decision  and  arguments  of  the  Supreme  Court 
upon  the  Drod  Scott  case  were  published  on 
March  6,  1857,  two  days  after  the  inauguration 
of  President  Buchanan.  The  decision  had  been 
agreed  upon  many  months  before,  and  the  appeal 
of  the  negro,  Dred  Scott,  had  been  decided  by 
rulings  which  in  no  way  involved  the  validity  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  Nevertheless,  a  ma- 
jority of  tl  e  judges  determined  to  give  to  the  newly 
developed  theory  of  John  C.  Calhoun  the  appear- 
ance of  the  sanctity  of  law.  According  to  Chief 
Justice  Taney's  dictum,  those  who  made  the  Con- 
stitution gave  to  those  clauses  defining  the  power  of 
Congress  over  the  Territories  an  erroneous  mean- 
mg.  On  numerous  occasions  Congress  had  by 
statute  excluded  slavery  from  the  public  domain. 
This,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Chief  Justice,  they 
had  no  right   to  do,  and  such  legislation  was 

191 


I 

J 


m 
,11 


i'H 


't 


IM        THE  ANTMLAVERY  CRUSADE 

iconstitutional  and  void.  SpiH^ifically  the  Mis- 
aouri  ComproniiMc  hod  never  had  any  binding 
force  as  law.  Property  in  slaves  was  as  sacrtnl  as 
property  in  any  other  form,  and  slave-owners  had 
equal  claim  with  other  property  owners  to  protec- 
tion in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States. 
Neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  Legislature 
could  infringe  such  equal  rights. 

According  to  popular  understanding,  the  Su- 
preme Court  declared  "that  the  negro  has  no 
rights  which  the  white  man  is  ^ound  to  respect." 
But  Chief  Justice  Taney  did  not  use  these  words 
merely  as  an  expression  of  his  own  or  of  the  Court's 
opinion.  He  used  them  in  a  way  much  more  con- 
temptible and  inexcusable  to  the  minds  of  men  of 
strong  anti-slavery  convictions.  He  put  them  into 
the  motiths  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  who 
wrote  the  Declaration  of  IiiJtpci  lence,  framed  the 
Constitution,  organized  state  Governments,  and 
gave  to  negroes  full  rights  of  citizenship,  including 
the  right  to  vote.  But  how  explain  this  strange  in- 
consistency? The  Chief  Justice  was  equal  to  the  oc- 
casion. He  insisted  that  in  recent  years  there  had 
come  about  a  better  understanding  of  the  phrase- 
ology of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
words,  "All  men  are  created  equal, "  he  admitted, 


III 


THE  SUPREME  COURT  IN  POUTICS  lOS 


"would  seem  to  embrace  the  whole  human  fam- 
ily, ami  if  they  were  used  in  a  similar  instru- 
ment at  this  day  tht-y  would  be  so  understood." 
But  the  writers  of  that  instrument  had  not,  he 
s  *^,  intended  to  include  men  of  the  African  race, 
who  were  at  that  time  regarded  as  not  forming  any 
part  of  the  people.  Therefore  —  strange  logic!  — 
these  men  of  the  revolutionary  era  who  treated 
negroes  actually  as  citizens  having  full  equal  rights 
did  not  understand  the  meaning  of  their  own  words, 
which  could  be  comprehended  only  after  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  when,  forsooth,  equal  rights 
had  been  denied  to  all  persons  of  African  descent. 
The  ruling  of  the  Court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case 
came  at  a  time  when  Northern  people  had  a  better 
idea  of  the  spirit  and  teachings  of  the  founders  of 
the  Republic  regarding  the  slavery  question  than 
any  generation  before  or  since  has  had.  The  cam- 
paign that  bad  just  closed  had  been  characterized 
by  a  high  order  of  discussion,  and  it  was  also  em- 
phatically a  reading  campaign.  The  new  Republi- 
can party  planted  itself  squarely  on  the  principles 
enunciated  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  reputed 
founder  of  the  old  Republican  party.  They  went 
back  to  the  policy  of  the  fathers,  whose  words  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  they  eagerly  read.  From 
n 


I 

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ii 

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1 


194        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

thih  source  also  came  the  chief  material  for  their 
public  addresses.     To  the  common  man  who  was 
thus  indoctrinated,  the  Chief  Justice,  in  describ- 
ing the  sentiments  of  the  fathers  respecting  slav- 
ery, appeared  to  be  doing  what  Horace  Greeley 
was  wont  to  describe  as  "saying  a  thing  and  being 
conscious  while  saying  it  that  the  thing  is  not  true." 
The  Dred  Scott  decision  laid  the  Republicans 
open  to  the  charge  of  seeking  by  unlawful  means 
to  deprive  slave-owners  of  their  rights,  and  it  was 
to  the  partizan  interest  of  the  Democrats  to  stand 
by  the  Court  and  thus  discredit  their  opponents. 
This  action  tended  to  carry  the  entire  Democratic 
party  to  the  support  of  Calhoun's  extreme  position 
on  the  slavery  question.     Republicans  had  pro- 
claimed  that  liberty  was  national  and  slavery 
municipal;  that  slavery  had  no  warrant  for  exist- 
ence except  by  state  enactment;  that  under  the 
Constitution  Congress  had  no  more  right  to  make 
a  slave  than  it  had  to  make  a  king;  that  Congress 
had  no  power  to  establish  or  permit  slavery  in  the 
Territories;  that  it  was,  on  the  contrary,  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  exclude  slavery.    On  these  points 
the  Supreme  Court  and  the  Republican  party  held 
directly  contradictory  opinions. 
The  Democratic  platform  of  1856  endorsed  the 


k 


THE  SUPREME  COURT  IN  POLITICS  195 

doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  as  embodied  in  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  legislation,  which  implied  that 
Congress  should  neither  prohibit  nor  introduce 
slavery  into  (hv  Terriiories,  but  should  leave  the 
inhabitants  'rw  to  dccid/  that  question  for  them- 
selves, the  ;)':hl'c  domfins  being  open  to  slave- 
owners on  equal  terms  with  others.  But  once  they 
had  an  organized  territorial  Government  and  a 
duly  elected  territorial  Legislature,  the  residents  of 
a  Territory  were  empowered  to  choose  either  slave 
labor  or  exclusively  free  labor.  This  at  least  was 
the  view  expounded  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
though  the  theory  was  apparently  rendered  unten- 
able by  the  ruling  of  the  Court  which  extended 
protection  to  slave-owners  in  all  the  Territories 
remaining  under  the  control  of  the  general  Govern- 
ment. It  followed  that  if  Congress  had  no  power 
to  interfere  with  that  right,  much  less  had  a  local 
territorial  Government,  which  is  itself  a  creature  of 
Congress.  A  state  Government  alone  might  con- 
trol the  status  of  slave  property.  A  Territory 
when  adopting  a  constitution  preparatory  to  be- 
coming a  State  would  find  it  then  in  order  to 
decide  whether  the  proposed  State  should  be  free 
or  slave.  This  was  the  view  held  by  Jefferson 
Davis  and  the  extreme  pro-slavery  leaders.   Aided 


4 


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n    i 


196        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

by  the  authority  of  the  Supreme  Court,  they  were 
prepared  to  insist  upon  a  new  plank  in  future 
Democratic  platforms  which  should  guarantee  to 
all  slave-owners  equal  rights  in  all  Territories  until 
they  ceased  to  be  Territories.  Over  this  issue  the 
party  again  divided  in  1860. 

Republicans  naturally  imagined  that  there  had 
been  collusion  between  Democratic  politicians  and 
members  of  the  Supreme  Court.     Mr.  Seward 
made  an  explicit  statement  to  that  effect,  and 
affirmed  that  President  Buchanan  was  admitted 
into  the  secret,  -'.Icgfng  as  proof  a  few  words  in  his 
inaugural  address  referring  to  the  decision  soon 
to  be  delivered.     Nothing  of  the  sort,  however, 
was  ever  proven.     The  historian  Von  Hoist  pre- 
sents the  view  that  there  had  been  a  most  elabo- 
rate and  comprehensive  program  on  the  part  of  the 
slavocracy  to  control  the  judiciary  of  the  federal 
Government.    The  actual  facts,  however,  admit  of 
a  simpler  and  more  satisfactory  explanation. 

Judges  are  aflFected  by  their  environment,  as  are 
other  men.  The  transition  from  the  view  that 
slavery  was  an  evil  to  the  view  that  it  is  right  and 
just  did  not  come  in  ways  open  to  general  observa- 
tion, and  probably  few  individuals  were  conscious 
of  having  altered  their  views.    Leadmg  churches 


if 


THE  SUPREME  COURT  IN  POLITICS   197 

throughout  the  South  began  to  preach  the  doctrine 
that  slavery  is  a  divinely  ordained  institution,  and 
by  the  time  of  the  decision  in  the  Dred  Scott  case 
a  whole  generation  had  grown  up  under  such 
teaching. 

A  large  proportion  of  Southern  leaders  had  be- 
come thoroughly  convinced  of  the  righteousness 
of  their  peculiar  system.  Not  otherwise  could 
they  have  been  so  successful  in  persuading  others 
to  accept  their  views.  Even  before  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  had  crystallized  opinion,  Franklin  Pierce, 
although  a  New  Hampshire  Democrat  of  anti- 
slavery  traditions,  came,  as  a  result  of  his  intimate 
personal  and  political  association  with  Southern 
leaders,  to  accept  their  guidance  and  strove  to  give 
eflPect  to  their  policies.  President  Buchanan  was  a 
man  of  similar  antecedents,  and,  contrary  to  the 
expect;.  ^f  his  Northern  supporters,  did  pre- 

cisely as  chad  done.    It  is  a  matter  of  record 

that  the  arguments  of  the  Chief  Justice  had  capti- 
vated his  mind  before  he  began  to  show  his  changed 
attitude  towards  Kansas.  In  August,  1857,  the 
President  wrote  that,  at  the  time  of  the  passage 
of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  slavery  already  ex- 
isted and  '  -t  it  still  existed  in  Kansas  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.    "This  point," 


1'^ 


(ti 


%  % 


.L 


.i'  J 


i'' 


l^J 


if 


i'^ 


■• 


r- 


J 


I  ' 


198        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

said  he,  "has  at  last  been  settled  by  the  highest 
tribunal  known  in  our  laws.  How  it  could  ever 
have  been  seriously  doubted  is  a  mystery." 
Granted  that  slaverj'  is  recognized  as  a  permanent 
institution  in  itself  —  just  and  of  divine  ordinance 
and  especially  united  to  one  section  of  the  country 
—  how  could  any  one  question  the  equal  rights  of 
the  people  of  that  section  to  occupy  with  their 
slaves  lands  acquired  by  common  sacrifice?  Such 
was  undoubtedly  the  view  of  both  Pierce  and 
Buchanan.  It  seemed  to  them  "wicked"  that 
Northern  abolitionists  should  se-jk  to  infringe  this 
sacred  right. 

By  a  similar  process  a  majority  of  the  Supreme 
Court  justices  had  become  converts  to  Calhoun's 
newly  announced  theory  of  1847.  It  undoubtedly 
seemed  strange  to  them,  as  it  did  later  to  President 
Buchanan,  that  any  one  should  ever  have  held  a 
different  view.  If  the  Court  with  the  force  of  its 
prestige  should  give  legal  sanction  to  the  new  doc- 
trine, it  would  allay  popular  agitation,  ensure  the 
preservation  of  the  Union,  and  secure  to  each  sec- 
tion its  legitimate  rights.  Such  apparently  was 
the  expectation  of  the  majority  of  the  Court  in 
rendering  the  decision.  But  the  decision  was  not 
unanimous.    Each  jud^c  presented  an  individual 


;  ,1> 


THE  SUPREME  COURT  IN  POLITICS  199 

opinion.  Five  supported  the  Chief  Justice  on  the 
main  points  as  to  the  status  of  the  African  race 
and  the  validity  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
Judge  Nelson  registered  a  protest  against  the  en- 
trance of  the  Court  into  the  political  arena.  Curtis 
and  McLean  wrote  elaborate  dissenting  opinions. 
Not  only  did  the  decision  have  no  tendency  to  allay 
party  debate,  but  it  added  greatly  to  the  acrimony 
of  the  discussion.  Republicans  accepted  the  dis- 
senting opinions  of  Curtis  and  McLean  as  a  com- 
plete refutation  of  the  arguments  of  the  Chief 
Justice;  and  the  Court  itself,  through  division 
among  its  members,  became  a  partizan  institution. 
The  arguments  of  the  justices  thus  present  a  com- 
plete summary  of  the  views  of  the  pro-slavery  and 
anti-slavery  parties,  and  the  opposing  opinion- 
stand  as  permanent  evidence  of  the  impossibility 
of  reconciling  slavery  and  freedom  in  the  same 
government. 

It  was  through  the  masterful  leadership  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  that  the  Lecompton  Constitu- 
tion was  defeated.  In  1858  an  election  was  to  be 
held  in  Illinois  to  determine  whether  or  not  Doug- 
las should  be  reelected  to  the  United  States  Senate. 
The  Buchanan  Administration  was  using  its  utmost 


k 


Mi 


A 


■J-  I 


A 


y 


200        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

influence  to  insure  Douglas's  defeat.    Many  east- 
ern Republicans  believed  that  in  this  emergency 
Illinois  Republicans  should  support  Douglas,  or 
at  least  that  they  should  do  nothing  to  diminish 
his  chances  for  reelection;  but  Illinois  Republicans 
decided  otherwise  and  nominated  Abraham  Lin- 
coln as  their  candidate  for  the  senatorship.    Then 
followed  the  memorab'e  Lincoln-Douglas  debates. 
This  is  not  the  place  for  any  extended  account 
of  the  famous  duel  between  the  rival  leaders,  but  a 
few  facts  must  be  stated.    Lincoln  had  slowly  come 
to  the  perception  that  a  large  portion  of  the  people 
abhorred  slavery,  and  that  the  weak  point  in  the 
armor  of  Douglas  was  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
he  did  not  recognize  this  growing  moral  sense. 
Douglas  had  never  been  a  defender  of  slavery  on 
ethical  grounds,  nor  had  he  expressed  any  distinct 
aversion  to  the  system.    In  support  of  his  policy 
of  popular  sovereignty  his  favorite  dictum  had 
been,  "I  do  not  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up 
or  voted  down." 

This  apparent  moral  obtuseness  furnished  to 
Lincoln  his  great  opportunity,  for  his  opponent  was 
apparently  without  a  conscience  in  respect  to  the 
great  question  of  the  day.  Lincoln,  on  the  con- 
trary, had  reached  the  conclusion  not  only  that 


THE  SUPREME  COURT  IN  POLITICS  201 

slavery  was  wrong,  but  that  the  relation  between 
slavery  and  freedom  was  such  that  they  could 
not  be  harmonized  within  the  same  government. 
Early  in  the  debate  he  put  forth  his  famous  utter- 
ance, "  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand," 
with  the  explanation  that  in  course  of  time  either 
this  country  would  become  all  slave  territory  or 
slavery  would  be  restricted  and  placed  in  a  position 
which  would  involve  its  final  extinction.  In  other 
words,  Lincoln's  position  was  similar  to  that  of  the 
con.servative  abolitionists.  As  we  know,  Bimey 
had  given  expression  to  a  similar  conviction  of 
the  impossibility  of  maintaining  both  liberty  and 
slavery  in  this  country,  but  Lincoln  spoke  at  a 
time  when  the  whole  country  had  been  aroused 
upon  the  great  question;  when  it  was  still  uncertain 
whether  slavery  would  not  be  forced  upon  the 
people  of  Kansas;  when  the  highest  court  in  the 
land  had  rendered  a  decision  which  was  apparently 
intended  to  legalize  slavery  in  all  Territories;  and 
when  the  alarming  question  had  been  raised 
whether  the  next  step  would  not  be  legalization 
in  all  the  States. 

Lincoln  was  a  long-headed  politician,  as  well  as 
a  man  of  sincere  moral  judgments.  He  was  de- 
fining issues  for  the  campaign  of  1860  and  was 


\A 


•  ■ 


Jk'!' 


♦   *i 


I ' 


208        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

putting  Douglas  on  record  so  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  him,  as  the  candidate  of  his  party,  to 
become  President.  Douglas  had  many  an  uncom- 
fortable hour  as  Lincoln  exposed  his  vain  efforts  to 
reconcile  his  popular  sovereignty  doctrine  with  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.  As  Lincoln  expected,  Doug- 
las won  the  senatorship,  but  he  lost  the  greater 
prize. 


',1'i  i 


1 


V  \ 


The  crusade  against  slavery  was  nearing  its  final 
stage.  Under  the  leadership  of  such  men  as  Sum- 
ner, Seward,  and  Lincoln,  a  political  party  was 
being  formed  whose  policies  were  based  upon  the 
assumption  that  slavery  is  both  a  moral  and  a  po- 
litical evil.  Even  at  this  stage  the  party  had 
assumed  such  proportions  that  it  was  likely  to 
carry  the  ensuing  presidential  election.  Davis 
and  Yancey,  the  chief  defenders  of  slavery,  were  at 
the  same  time  reaching  a  definite  conclusion  as  to 
what  should  follow  the  election  of  a  Republican 
President.  And  that  conclusion  involved  nothing 
less  than  the  fate  of  the  Union. 


H    :; 


f   r 


i^ 


CHAPTER  XIV 


JOHN  BROWN 


The  crusade  against  slavery  was  based  upon  the 
assumption  that  slavery,  like  war,  i^  an  abnormal 
state  of  society.  As  the  tyrant  produces  the  assas- 
sin, so  on  a  larger  scale  slavery  calls  forth  servile 
insurrection,  or,  as  in  the  United  States,  an  im- 
placable struggle  between  free  white  persons  and 
the  defenders  of  slavery. 

The  propaganda  of  Southern  and  Western  abo 
litionists  had  as  a  primary  object  the  prevention  of 
both  servile  insurrection  and  civil  war.  It  was  as 
clear  to  Southern  abolitionists  in  the  thirties  as  it 
was  to  Seward  and  Lincoln  in  the  fifties  that,  unless 
the  newly  ar  used  slave  power  should  be  effec- 
tively checked,  a  terrible  civil  war  would  ensue. 
To  forestall  this  dreaded  calamity,  they  freely 
devoted  their  lives  and  fortunes.  Peaceable 
emancipation  by  state  action,  according  to  the 
original  program,  was  prevented  by  the  rise  of  a 

203 


I 


11 

111 
.1 


m 


mi 


'lit 


iim 


)♦ 


1? 

J 


i'\ 


\f\ 


'  f 


'  iv 


1,1!  , 


I; 


r. 


804  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 
sectional  animosity  which  beclouded  the  issue.  As 
the  leadership  drifted  into  the  hands  of  extremists, 
the  conservative  masses  were  confused,  misled,  or 
deceived.  The  South  undoubtedly  became  the  vic- 
tim of  the  erroneous  teachings  of  alarmists  who 
believed  that  the  anti-slavery  North  intended,  by 
unlawful  and  unconstitutional  federal  action,  to 
abolish  slavery  in  all  the  States;  while  the  North 
had  equally  exaggerated  notions  as  to  the  aggres- 
sive intentions  of  the  South. 

The  opposing  forces  finally  met  on  the  plains  of 
Kansas,  and  extreme  Northern  opposition  became 
personified  in  John  Brown  of  Osawatomie.     He 
was  born  in  Connecticut  in  May,  1800,  of  New 
England  ancestry,  the  sixth  generation  from  the 
Mayflower.  A  Calvinist,  a  mystic,  a  i>ible-reading 
Puritan,  he  was  trained  to  anti-slavery  sentiments 
in  the  family  of  Owen  Brown,  his  father.     He 
passed  his  early  childhood  in  the  Western  Reserve 
of  Ohio,  and  subsequently  moved  from  Ohio  to 
New  York,  to  Pennsylvania,  to  Ohio  again,  to 
Connecticut,  to  Massachusetts,  and  finally  to  New 
York  once  more.    He  was  at  various  times  tanner, 
farmer,  sheep-raiser,  horse-breeder,  wool-merchant, 
and  a  follower  of  other  callings  as  well.    From  a 
business  standpoint  he  may  be  regarded  as  a 


i 


I'hiiloKruphii  Ml  I  Ik 


jniis  liBOWN,  isr,» 

•lltrtiiiii  of  the  KanmiN  Stale  lli«tiiri(«l  »(arittjr, 
Tii|H-ka,  Kmuum. 


J(UIS  bKOnN.  ABUl  T  ISSS 


*l 


I     k-. 


Ill 
■■il 


j-*i 


/*) 


/•-'^l 


'.  ti 


i' 


■\    M\»'\ 


.1  .  \\u, 


<1     . 


t.  -jr 


V- 


B 


JOHN  BROWN 


205 


failure,  for  he  had  been  more  than  once  a  bankrupt 
and  involved  in  much  litigation.  He  was  twice 
married  and  was  the  father  of  twenty  children, 
eight  of  whom  died  in  infancy. 

Until  the  Kansa-  excitement  nothing  had  oc- 
curred in  the  histf  ,  jf  the  Brown  family  to  attract 
public  attention.  John  Brown  was  not  conspicu- 
ous in  anti-slavery  eflPorts  or  in  any  line  of  public 
reform.  As  a  mere  lad  during  the  War  of  1812  he 
accompanied  his  father,  who  was  furnishing  sup- 
plies to  the  army,  and  thus  he  saw  much  of  soldiers 
and  their  oflBcers.  The  result  was  that  he  acquired 
a  feeling  of  disgust  for  everything  military,  and  he 
consistently  refused  to  perform  the  required  mili- 
tary drill  until  he  had  passed  the  age  for  service. 
Not  quite  in  harmony  with  these  facts  is  the  state- 
ment that  he  was  a  great  admirer  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well, and  Rhodes  says  of  him  that  he  admired  Nat 
Tumc",  the  leader  of  the  servile  insurrection  in 
Virginia,  as  much  as  he  did  George  Washington. 
There  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  doubt  the  testi- 
mony of  the  members  of  his  family  that  John 
Brown  always  cherished  a  lively  interest  in  the 
African  race  and  a  deep  sympathy  with  them.  As 
a  youth  he  had  chosen  for  a  companion  a  slave 
boy  of  his  own  age,  to  whom  he  became  greatly 


H 


m 


t 


■'^t 


y 


h  -V.  ^ 


206        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CHUSADE 

attached.  This  slave,  badly  clad  and  poorly  fed, 
beaten  with  iron  shovel  or  anything  that  came  first 
to  hand,  young  Brown  grew  to  regard  as  his  equal 
if  not  his  superior.  And  it  was  the  contrast  be- 
tween their  respective  conditions  that  first  led 
Brown  to  "swear  eternal  war  with  slavery."  In 
later  years  John  Brown,  Junior,  tells  us  that,  on 
seeing  a  negro  for  the  first  time,  he  felt  so  great  a 
sympathy  for  him  that  he  wanted  to  take  the 
negro  home  with  him.  This  sjTnpathy,  he  assures 
us,  was  a  result  of  his  father's  teaching.  Upon  the 
testimony  of  two  of  John  Brown's  sons  rests  the 
oft-repeated  story  that  he  dec  ed  eternal  war 
against  slavery  and  also  induce  'e  members  of 
his  family  to  unite  with  him  in  {<  v.  I  consecration 
to  his  mission.  The  time  given  .  this  incident 
is  previous  to  the  year  1840;  the  idea  that  he  was 
a  divinely  chosen  agent  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
slaves  was  of  later  development. 

As  early  as  1834  Brown  had  shown  some  active 
interest  in  the  education  of  negro  children,  first  in 
Pennsylvania  and  later  in  Ohio.  In  1848  the 
Brown  family  became  associated  with  an  enterprise 
of  Gerrit  Smith  in  northern  New  York,  where  a  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  of  land  were  oflPered  to  negro 
families  for  settlement.     During  the  excitement 


Pi  ^ 

ill 


E 


JOHN  BROWN 


207 


over  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1850  Brown  or- 
ganized among  the  colored  people  of  Springfield, 
Massachusetts,  "The  United  States  League  of 
Gileadites."  As  an  organization  this  undertaking 
proved  a  failure,  but  Brown's  formal  written  in- 
structions to  the  "Gileadites"  are  interesting  on 
account  of  their  relation  to  what  subsequently 
happened.  In  this  document,  by  referring  to  the 
multitudes  who  had  suflFered  in  their  behalf,  he 
encouraged  the  negroes  to  stand  for  their  liberties. 
He  instructed  them  to  be  armed  and  ready  to  rush 
to  the  rescue  of  any  of  their  number  who  might  be 
attacked: 

Should  one  of  your  number  be  arrested,  you  must  collect 
together  as  quickly  as  possible,  so  as  to  outnumber  your 
adversaries  who  are  taking  an  active  part  against  you. 
Let  no  able-bodied  man  appear  on  the  ground  un- 
equipped, or  with  his  weapons  exp>osed  to  view:  let  that 
be  understood  beforehand.  Your  plans  must  be  known 
only  to  yourself,  and  with  the  understanding  that  all 
traitors  must  die,  wherever  caught  and  proven  to  be 
guilty.  "WTiosoever  is  fearful  or  afraid,  let  him  return 
and  depart  early  from  Mount  Gilead"  (Judges,  vii.  3; 
Deut.  XX.  8).  Give  all  cowards  an  opportunity  to  show 
it  on  condition  of  holding  their  peace.  Do  not  delay  one 
moment  after  you  are  ready:  you  will  lose  all  your  resolu- 
tion if  you  do.  Let  the  first  blow  be  the  signal  for  all  to 
engage:  and  when  engaged  do  not  do  your  work  by  halves. 


I 

I 


I 
t'  ' 


}i\ 


t'i 


208 


THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 


If: 

n 


but  make  clean  work  with  your  enemies,  —  and  be  sure  you 
meddle  not  with  any  others.  By  going  about  your  busi- 
ness quietly,  you  will  get  the  job  disposed  of  before  the 
number  that  an  uproar  would  bring  together  can  collect; 
and  you  will  have  the  advantage  of  those  who  come  out 
against  you,  for  they  wil!  be  wholly  unprepared  with 
either  equipments  or  matured  plans;  all  with  them  will 
be  confusion  and  terror.  "Your  enemies  will  be  slow  to 
attack  you  after  you  have  done  up  the  work  nicely;  and 
if  they  should,  they  will  have  to  encounter  your  white 
friends  as  well  as  you;  for  you  may  safely  calculate  on  a 
division  of  the  whites,  and  may  by  that  means  get  to  an 
honorable  parley. 

He  gives  here  a  distinct  suggestion  of  the  plans  and 
methods  which  he  later  developed  and  extended. 

When  Kansas  was  opened  for  settlement,  John 
Brown  was  fifty-four  years  old.  Early  in  the  spring 
of  1855,  five  of  his  sons  took  up  claims  near  Osa- 
watomie.  They  went,  as  did  others,  as  peaceable 
settlers  without  arms.  After  the  election  of  March 
30,  1855,  at  which  armed  Missourians  overawed 
the  Kansas  settlers  and  thus  secured  a  unanimous 
pro-slavery  Legislature,  the  free-state  men,  un'"  - 
the  leadership  of  Robinson,  began  to  im^x.  - 
Sharp's  rifles  and  other  weapons  for  defense. 
Brown's  sons  thereupon  wrote  to  their  father,  de- 
scribing their  helpless  condition  and  urging  him  to 
come  to  their  relief.    In  October,  1855,  John  Brown 


I'M 

:    h 

*     'i 


JOHN  BROWN  209 

himself  arrived  with  an  adequate  supply  of  rifles 
and  some  broadswords  ai.d  revolvers.  The  process 
of  organization  and  drill  thereupon  began,  and 
when  the  Wakarusa  War  occurred  early  in  Decem- 
ber, 1855,  John  Brown  was  on  hand  with  a  small 
company  from  Osawatomie  to  assist  in  the  defense 
of  Lawrence.  The  statement  that  he  disapproved 
of  the  agreement  with  Governor  Shannon  which 
prevented  bloodshed  is  not  in  accord  with  a  letter 
which  John  Brown  wrote  to  his  wife  immediately 
after  the  event.  The  Governor  granted  practically 
ail  that  the  free-state  men  desired  and  recognized 
their  train-bands  as  a  part  of  the  police  force  of  the 
Territory.  Brown  by  this  stipulation  became  Cap- 
tain John  Brown,  conMnander  of  a  company  of  the 
territorial  militia. 

Soon  after  the  Battle  of  Wakarusa,  Captain 
Brown  passed  the  command  of  the  company  of 
militia  to  his  son  John,  while  he  became  the  leader 
of  a  small  band  composed  chiefly  of  members  of 
his  own  family.  Writing  to  his  wife  on  April  7, 
1856,  he  said:  "We  hear  that  preparations  are 
making  in  the  United  States  Court  for  numerous 
arrests  of  free-state  men.  For  one  I  have  not 
desired  (all  things  considered)  to  have  the  slave 
power  cease  from  its  acts  of  aggression.     'Their 


14 


if 


H 


210        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

foot  shall  slide  in  due  time.'"  This  letter  of 
Brown's  indicates  that  the  writer  was  pleased  at 
the  prospect  of  approaching  trouble. 

When,  six  weeks  later,  notice  came  of  the  attack 
upon  Lawrence,  John  Brown,  Junior,  went  with 
the  company  of  Osawatomie  Rifles  to  the  relief 
of  the  town,  while  the  elder  Brown  with  a  little 
company  of  six  moved  in  the  same  direction.  In  a 
letter  to  his  wife,  dated  June  26, 1856,  more  than  a 
month  after  the  massacre  in  Pottawatomie  Valley, 
Brown  said: 

On  our  way  to  Lawrence  we  learned  that  it  had  been 
already  destroyed,  and  we  encamped  with  John's  com- 
pany overnight.  ...  On  the  second  day  and  evening 
after  we  left  John's  men,  we  encountered  quite  a  num- 
ber of  pro-slavery  men  and  took  quite  a  number  of 
prisoners.  Our  prisoners  we  let  go,  but  kept  some  four 
or  five  horses.  We  were  immediately  after  this  accused 
of  murdering  five  men  at  Pottawatomie  and  great  efforts 
have  been  made  by  the  Missourians  and  their  ruflSan 
allies  to  capture  us.  John's  company  soon  afterwards 
disbanded,  and  also  the  Osawatomie  men.  Since  then, 
we  have,  like  David  of  old,  had  our  dwelling  with 
the  serpents  of  the  rocks  and  the  wild  beasts  of  the 
wilderness. 

There  will  probably  never  be  agreement  as  to 
Brown's  motives  in  slaying  his  five  neighbors  on 
May  24,  1856.    Opinions  likewise  differ  as  to  the 


'i'i 


JOHN  BROWN  211 

eflfect  which  this  incident  had  on  the  history  of 
Kansas.  Abolitionists  of  every  class  had  said  much 
about  war  and  about  servile  insurrection,  but  the 
conservative  people  of  the  West  and  South  had 
mentioned  the  subject  only  by  way  of  warning  and 
that  they  might  point  out  ways  of  prevention. 
Garrison  and  his  followers  had  used  language  which 
gave  rise  to  the  impression  that  they  favored  vio- 
lent revolution  and  were  not  averse  to  fomenting 
servile  insurrection.  They  had  no  faith  in  the 
efforts  of  Northern  emigrants  to  save  Kansas  from 
the  clutches  of  the  slaveholding  South,  and  they 
denounced  in  severe  terms  the  Robinson  leader- 
ship there,  believing  it  sure  to  result  in  failure.  To 
this  class  of  abolitionists  John  Brown  distinctly 
belonged.  He  believed  that  so  high  was  the  ten- 
sion on  the  slavery  question  throughout  the  coun- 
try that  revolution,  if  inaugurated  at  any  point, 
would  sweep  the  land  and  liberate  the  slaves. 
Brown  was  also  possessed  of  the  belief  that  he  was 
himself  the  divinely  chosen  agent  to  let  loose  the 
forces  of  freedom;  anJ  that  this  was  the  chief 
motive  which  prompted  ,  he  deed  at  Pottawatomie 
is  as  probable  as  any  other. 

Viewed  in  this  light,  the  Pottawatomie  mas- 
sacre was  measurably  successful.    Opposing  forces 


1  i 
i  I 


t1 


■I 


t- 


f 


1.  .i. 


212        THE  ANTI-SL.\VERY  CRUSADE 

became  more  clearly  defined  and  were  pitted  against 
each  other  in  hostile  array.  There  were  reprisals 
and  counter-reprisals.  Kansas  was  plunged  into  a 
state  of  civil  war,  but  it  is  quite  probable  that  this 
condition  would  have  followed  the  looting  of 
Lawrence  even  if  John  Brown  had  been  absent 
from  the  Territory. 

Coincident  with  the  warfare  by  organized  com- 
panies, small  irregular  bands  infested  the  country. 
Kansas  became  a  paradise  for  adventurers,  soldiers 
of  fortune,  horse  thieves,  cattle  thieves,  and  ma- 
rauders of  various  sorts.  Spoiling  the  enemy  in  the 
interest  of  a  righteous  cause  easily  degenerated 
into  common  robbery  and  murder.  It  was  chiefly 
in  this  sort  of  conflict  that  two  hundred  persons 
were  slain  and  that  two  million  dollars'  worth  of 
property  was  destroyed. 

During  this  period  of  civil  war  the  members  of 
the  Brown  family  were  not  much  in  evidence. 
John  Brown,  Junior,  captain  of  the  Osawatomie 
Rifles,  was  a  political  prisoner  at  Topeka.  Swift 
destruction  of  their  property  was  visited  upon  all 
those  members  who  were  suspected  of  having  a 
share  in  the  Pottawatomie  murders,  and  their 
houses  were  burned  and  their  other  property  was 
seized.    Warrants  were  out  for  the  arrest  of  the 


A 


% 


JOHN  BROWN  21S 

elder  Brown  and  his  sons.  Cuptain  Pate  who,  in 
command  of  a  small  troop,  was  in  pursuit  of  Brown 
and  his  company,  was  surprised  at  Bhuk  Jack 
in  the  early  morning  and  induced  to  surrender. 
Brown  thus  gained  control  of  a  number  of  horses 
and  other  supplies  and  began  to  arrange  terms 
for  the  exchange  of  his  son  and  Captain  Pate  as 
prisoners  of  war.  The  negotiations  were  inter- 
rupted, however,  by  the  arrival  of  Colonel  Sumner 
with  United  States  troops,  who  restored  the  horses 
and  other  booty  and  disbanded  all  the  troops. 
With  the  Colonel  was  a  deputy  marshal  with  war- 
rants for  the  arrest  of  the  Browns.  When  ordered 
to  proceed  with  his  duty,  however,  the  marshal 
was  so  overawed  that,  even  though  a  federal  officer 
was  present,  he  merely  remarked,  "I  do  not  recog- 
nize any  one  for  whom  I  have  warrants." 

After  the  capture  of  Captain  Pate  at  Black  Jack 
early  in  June,  little  is  known  about  Brown  and  his 
troops  for  two  months.  Apari  from  an  encounter 
of  opposing  forces  near  Osawatomie  in  which  he 
and  his  band  were  engaged.  Brown  took  no  share 
in  the  open  fighting  between  the  organized  com- 
panies of  opposing  forces,  and  his  part  in  the  irregu- 
lar guerrilla  warfare  of  the  period  is  uncertain.  To- 
wards the  close  of  the  war  one  of  his  sons  was  shot 


f 


f> 


.  \h 


814        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

by  a  preacher  who  aUeged  that  he  had  been  robbed 
by  the  Browns.  After  peace  had  been  restored  to 
Kansas  by  the  vigorous  action  of  (lovernor  Ge.iry, 
Brown  left  the  scene  and  never  again  took  an 
active  part  in  the  local  affairs  of  the  Territory. 

John  Brown's  influence  upon  the  course  of 
affairs  in  Kansas,  like  Willie m  Lloyd  Garrison's 
upon  the  general  anti-slavery  movement  of  the 
country,  has  been  greatly  misunderstood  and 
exaggerated.  Brown's  object  and  intention  were 
fundamentally  contradictory  to  those  of  the  free- 
state  settlers.  They  strove  to  build  a  free  common- 
wealth by  legal  and  constitutional  methods.  He 
strove  to  inaugurate  a  revolution  which  would 
extend  to  all  pro-slavery  States  and  result  in  uni- 
versal emancipation.  John  Brown  was  in  Kansas 
only  one  year,  and  he  never  made  himself  at  one 
with  those  who  should  have  been  his  fellow-workers 
but  went  his  solitary  way.  Only  in  '''ree  instances 
did  he  pretend  to  cooperate  with  *  "egular  free- 
state  forces.  He  could  not  work  w  n  them  because 
his  conception  of  the  means  to  be  adopted  to  attain 
the  end  was  different  from  theirs.  Probably  before 
he  left  the  Territory  in  1856,  he  had  realized  that 
his  work  in  Kansas  was  a  failure  and  that  the  law- 
and-order  forces  were  too  strong  for  the  execution 


fi 


■f. 


JOHN  BROWN  815 

of  his  plans.  Certain  it  is  that  within  a  ffw  wt'oks 
after  his  departure  he  had  transferred  the  field 
of  his  operations  to  the  mountains  of  Virginia. 
Kansas  became  free  through  the  persistent  deter- 
mination of  the  rank  and  file  of  Nortliern  settU'rs 
under  the  wise  K-adership  of  Governor  Robinson. 
It  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  the  cause  of 
Kansas  was  aided  or  hindered  by  the  advent  of 
John  Brown  and  the  adventurers  with  whom  his 
name  became  associated. 

During  the  fall  of  1856  and  until  the  late  summer 
of  1857  Brown  was  in  the  East  raising  funds  for  the 
redemption  of  Kansas  and  for  the  reimbursement 
of  those  who  had  incurred  or  were  likely  to  incur 
losses  in  defense  of  the  cause.  For  the  equipment 
of  a  troop  of  soldiers  under  his  own  commrnd  he 
formulated  plans  for  raising  $:30,000  by  private 
subscription,  and  in  this  he  was  to  a  considerable 
extent  successful.  It  can  never  be  known  how 
much  was  given  in  this  way  to  Brown  for  the  equip- 
ment of  his  army  of  liberation.  It  is  estimated 
that  George  L.  Stearns  alone  gave  in  all  fully 
$10,000.  Because  Eastern  abolitionists  had  lost 
confidence  in  Robinson's  leadership,  they  lent  a 
willing  ear  to  the  plea  that  Captain  Brown  with  a 
well-equipped  and  trained  company  of  soldiers  was 


\U 


!l 


iffl 


/ 1  ■  1 


«l<i        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

the  lust  hope  for  checking  the  enemy.  Not  only 
wot!  1  Kansas  bi'come  u  slave  State  without  such 
help,  i(  u.is said,  but  theinstitutionof  slavery  would 
spr  w'!  tail  theTerritories  and  become  invincible. 
IK  I'l  ncy  was  given  to  Brown  to  n\leem 
K  t  1  1^  I.  i'  he  had  developed  an  alternative  plan. 
Et  1^  in  ( t.e  year  1H.j7,  he  met  in  N«  v  York  Colo- 
ne!  i  f  iij!  I'virln's.  a  soldier  of  fortune  who  had  seen 
ser  .  ^Mlh  \-  '»  ..Ji  in  Italy.  They  discussed 
g*»*''*«  .'  <;    an  aggressive  attack  upon  the 

Soulii  for  tl.'  liberation  of  the  slaves,  and  with 
the.>e  plans  th«  needs  of  Kansas  had  little  or  no 
connection.  "Kansas  was  to  be  a  prologue  to  the 
real  drama,"  writes  his  latest  biographer;  "the 
properties  of  the  one  were  to  serve  in  the  other." 
In  April  six  months'  salary  was  advanced  out  of 
the  Kansas  fund  to  Forbes,  who  was  employed  at  a 
hundred  dollars  a  month  to  aid  in  the  execution 
of  their  plans.  Another  significant  expenditure  of 
the  Kansas  fund  was  in  pursu.-'nce  of  a  contract 
with  a  Mr.  Blair,  a  Connecticut  manufacturer, 
to  furnish  at  a  dollar  each  one  thousand  pikes. 
Though  the  contract  was  dated  March  30,  1857, 
it  was  not  completed  until  the  fall  of  1859,  when  the 
weapons  were  delivered  to  Brown  in  Pennsylvania 
for  use  at  Harper's  Ferry. 


JOHN  BROWN  «17 

Instead  of  rushing  to  the  rdirf  of  KanstiM,  as 
contributor.H  hud  cxpt'cle*!,  the  It'udtT  oxcrn'stMl 
rcmarkahlf  deliherution.  Whrn  August  arrivtil, 
it  found  him  only  as  far  us  Tahor,  luwa,  where  a 
considerable  quantity  of  arms  liad  been  previously 
assembled.  Here  ho  was  joined  by  Colonel  Forbes, 
and  together  they  organized  a  .scfwol  of  military 
tactics  with  Forbes  as  instructor.  But  as  Forbes 
could  find  no  one  buf  Brown  and  his  son  to  drill,  he 
soon  retJirned  to  the  East,  still  trust*  \  1  %'  Brown 
as  a  coworker.  It  would  seem  that  Forties  himself 
wished  to  play  the  chief  part  in  the  liberation  of 
America. 

While  he  was  at  Tabor,  Brown  was  urged  by 
Lane  and  other  former  associates  of  his  in  Kansas 
to  come  to  their  relief  with  all  his  forces.  There 
had,  indeed,  been  a  full  year  of  peace  since  Geary's 
'irrival,  but  early  in  October  there  was  to  occur  the 
election  of  a  territorial  Legislature  in  which  the 
free-state  forces  had  agreed  to  participate,  and 
Lane  feared  an  invasion  from  Missouri.  But  al- 
though the  appeal  was  not  effective,  the  election 
proved  a  complete  triumph  for  the  North.  Late 
in  October,  after  the  signal  victory  of  the  law-and- 
order  party  at  the  eU'ction,  Brown  was  a*,'ain  urged 
with  even  greater  insistence  to  muster  all  his  forces 


'ty 


218        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

and  come  to  Kansas,  and  there  were  hints  in  Lane's 
letter  that  an  aggressive  campaign  was  afoot  to  rid 
the  Territory  of  the  enemy.  Instead  of  going  in 
force,  however,  Brown  stole  into  the  Territory 
alone.  On  his  arrival,  two  days  after  the  date  set 
for  a  decisive  council  of  the  revolutionary  faction, 
he  did  not  make  himself  known  to  Governor  Rob- 
inson or  to  any  of  his  party  but  persuaded  several 
of  his  former  associates  to  join  his  "school"  in 
Iowa.  From  Tabor  he  subsequently  transferred 
the  school  to  Springdale,  a  quiet  Quaker  com- 
munity in  Cedar  County,  Iowa,  seven  miles  from 
any  railway  station.  Here  the  company  went  into 
winter  quarters  and  spent  the  time  in  rigid  drill  in 
preparation  for  the  campaign  of  liberation  which 
they  expected  to  undertake  the  following  season. 

While  he  was  at  Tabor,  Brown  began  to  intimate 
to  his  Eastern  friends  that  he  had  other  and  differ- 
ent plans  for  the  promotion  of  the  general  cause. 
In  January,  1858,  he  went  East  with  the  definite 
intention  of  obtaining  additional  support  for  the 
greater  scheme.  On  February  22,  1858,  at  the 
home  of  Gerrit  Smith  in  New  York,  there  was  held 
a  council  at  which  Brown  definitely  outlined  his 
purpose  to  begin  operations  at  some  point  in  the 
mountains  of  Virginia.    Smith  and  Sanborn  at  first 


r.  I  1 


f. 


JOHN  BROWN  219 

tried  to  dissuade  him,  but  finally  consented  to  co- 
operate. The  secret  was  carefully  guarded:  some 
half-dozen  Eastern  friends  wrre  apprised  of  it,  in- 
cluding Stearns,  their  most  liberal  contributor,  and 
two  or  three  friends  at  Springdale. 

As  early  as  December,  1857,  Forbes  began  to 
write  mysterious  letters  to  Sanborn,  Steams,  and 
others  of  the  circle,  in  which  he  complained  of  ill- 
usage  at  the  hands  of  Brown.  It  appears  that 
Forbes  erroneously  assumed  that  the  Boston 
friends  were  aware  of  Brown's  contract  with  him 
and  of  his  plans  for  the  attack  upon  Virginia;  but, 
since  they  were  entirely  ignorant  on  both  points, 
the  correspondence  was  conducted  at  cross-pur- 
poses for  several  mo;  ths.  Finally,  early  in  May, 
1858,  it  transpired  that  Forbes  had  all  th-  time 
been  fully  informed  of  Brown's  intentions  to  begin 
the  effort  for  emancipation  in  Virginia.  Not  only 
so,  but  he  had  given  detailed  information  on  the 
subject  to  Senators  Sumner,  Seward,  Hale,  Wilson, 
and  possibly  others.  Senator  Wilson  was  told  that 
the  arms  purchased  by  the  New  England  Aid  So- 
ciety for  use  in  Kansas  were  to  be  used  by  Brown 
for  an  attack  on  Virginia.  Wilson,  in  entire  igno- 
rance of  Brown's  plans,  demanded  that  the  Aid 
Society  be  effectively  protected  against  any  such 


%i 


■J 
I 


220        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

charge  of  betrayal  of  trust.  The  oflScers  of  the  So- 
ciety were,  in  fact,  aware  that  the  arms  which  had 
been  purchased  with  Society  funds  the  year  before 
and  shipped  to  Tabor,  Iowa,  had  been  placed  in 
Brown's  hands  and  that,  without  their  consent, 
those  arms  had  been  shipped  to  Ohio  and  just  at 
that  time  were  on  the  point  of  being  transported  to 
Virginia.  This  knowledge  placed  the  officers  of  the 
New  England  Aid  Society  in  a  most  awkward  posi- 
tion. Steams,  the  treasurer,  had  advanced  large 
sums  to  meet  pressing  needs  during  the  starvation 
times  in  Kansas  in  1857.  Now  the  arms  in  Brown's 
possession  were,  by  vote  of  the  officers,  given  to  the 
treasurer  in  part  payment  of  the  Society's  debt, 
and  he  of  course  left  them  just  where  they  were. ' 
On  the  basis  of  this  arrangement  Senator  Wilson 
and  the  public  were  assured  that  none  of  the  prop- 
erty given  for  the  benefit  of  Kansas  had  been  or 
would  be  diverted  to  other  purposes  by  the  Kansas 
Committee.  It  was  decided,  however,  that  on 
account  of  the  Forbes  revelations  the  attack  upon 
Harper's  Ferry  must  be  delayed  for  one  year  and 


*  "When  the  denouement  finally  came,  however,  the  public  and 
press  did  not  take  a  very  favorable  view  of  the  transaction;  it  was  too 
difficult  to  distinguish  between  George  L.  Stearns,  the  benefactor  of 
the  Kansas  Committee,  and  George  L.  Stearns,  the  Chairman  of  that 
Committee."  —  Villard,  John  Broum,  p.  341. 


JOHN  BROWN  £21 

that  Brown  must  go  to  Kansas  to  take  part  in  the 
pending  elections. 

Though  Brown  arrived  in  Kansas  late  in  June, 
he  took  no  active  part  in  the  pending  measures  for 
the  final  triumph  of  the  free-state  cause.    It  is 
something  of  a  mystery  how  he  was  occupied  be- 
tween the  1st  of  July  and  the  middle  of  December. 
Under  the  pseudonym  of  "Shubal  Morgan"  he 
was  commander  of  a  small  band  in  which  were  a 
number  of  his  followers  in  training  for  the  Eastern 
mission.   The  occupation  of  this  band  is  not  matter 
of  history  until  December  20,  1858,  when  they 
made  a  raid  into  the  State  of  Missouri,  slew  one 
white  man,  took  eleven  slaves,  a  large  number  of 
horses,  some  oxen,  wagons,  much  food,  arms,  and 
various  other  supplies.    This  action  was  in  direct 
violation  of  a  solemn  agreement  between  the  border 
settlers  of  State  and  Territory.     The  people  in 
Kansas  were  in  terror  lest  retaliatory  raids  should 
follow,  as  would  undoubtedly  have  happened  had 
not  the  people  of  Missouri  taken  active  measures 
to  prevent  such  reprisals. 

Rewards  were  offered  for  Brown's  arrest,  and 
free-state  residents  served  notice  that  he  must 
leave  the  Territory.  In  the  dead  of  winter  he 
started  North  with  some  slaves  and  many  horses. 


1^ 


1 

I 

i 


fp 


99»        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

accompanied  by  Kagi  and  Gill,  two  of  his  faithful 
followers.  In  northern  Kansas,  where  they  were 
delayed  by  a  swollen  stream,  a  band  of  horsemen 
appeared  to  dispute  their  passage.  Brown's  party 
quickly  mustered  assistance  and,  giving  chase  to 
the  enemy,  took  three  prisoners  with  four  horses  as 
spoils  of  war.  In  Kansas  parlance  the  affair  is 
called  "The  Battle  of  the  Spurs."  The  leaders  in 
the  chase  were  seasoned  soldiers  on  their  way  to 
Harper's  Ferry  with  the  intention  of  spending  their 
lives  collecting  slaves  and  conducting  them  to 
places  of  safety.  For  this  sort  of  warfare  they  were 
winning  their  spurs.  It  was  their  intention  to 
teach  all  defenders  of  slavery  to  use  their  utmost 
endeavor  to  keep  out  of  their  reach.  As  Brown 
and  his  company  passed  through  Tabor,  the  citi- 
zens took  occasion  at  a  public  meeting  to  resolve 
"  that  we  have  no  sympathy  with  those  who  go  to 
slave  States  to  entice  away  slaves,  and  take  prop- 
erty or  life  when  necessary  to  attain  that  end." 

A  few  days  later  the  party  was  at  Grinnell,  Iowa. 
According  to  the  detailed  account  which  J.  B. 
Grinnell  gives  in  his  autobiography,  Brown  ap- 
peared on  Saturday  afternoon,  stacked  his  arms 
in  Grinnell's  parlor  and  disposed  of  his  people 
and  horses  partly  in  Grinnell's  house  and  barn  and 


JOHN  BROWN  223 

partly  at  the  hotel.  In  the  evening  Brown  and 
Kagi  addressed  a  large  meeting  in  a  public  hall. 
Brown  gave  a  lurid  account  of  experiences  in  Kan- 
sas, justified  his  raid  into  Missouri  by  saying  the 
slaves  were  to  be  sold  for  shipment  to  the  South, 
and  gave  notice  that  his  surplus  horses  would  be 
offered  for  sale  on  Monday.  "What  title  can  j'ou 
give.'"  was  the  question  that  came  from  the  audi- 
ence. "The  best  —  the  affidavit  that  they  were 
taken  by  black  men  from  land  they  had  cleared  and 
tilled;  taken  in  part  payment  for  labor  which  is 
kept  back." 

Brown  again  addressed  a  large  meeting  on  Sun- 
day evening  at  which  each  of  the  three  clergymen 
present  invoked  the  divine  blessing  upon  Brown 
and  his  labors.  The  present  writer  was  told  by  an 
eye-witness  that  one  of  the  ministers  prayed  for 
forgiveness  for  any  wrongful  acts  which  their  guest 
may  have  committed.  Convinced  of  the  rectitude 
of  his  actions,  however,  Brown  objected  and  said 
that  he  thanked  no  one  for  asking  forgiveness  for 
anything  he  had  done. 

Returning  from  church  on  Sunday  evening, 
Grinnell  found  a  message  awaiting  him  from  Mr. 
Werkman,  United  States  marshal  at  Iowa  City, 
who  was  a  friend  of  Grinnell.    The  message  in  part 


:fi 


If 


M 


224        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

read:  "You  can  see  that  it  will  give  your  town  a 
bad  name  to  have  a  fight  there;  then  all  who  aid 
are  liable,  and  there  will  be  an  arrest  or  blood.   Get 
the  old  Devil  away  to  save  trouble,  for  he  will  be 
taken,  dead  or  alive."    Grinnell  showed  the  mes- 
sage to  Brown,  who  remarked:     "Yes,  I  have 
heard  of  him  ever  since  I  came  into  the  State.  .  .  . 
Tell  him  we  are  ready  to  be  taken,  but  will  wait 
one  day  more  for  his  military  squad."   True  to  his 
word  he  waited  till  the  following  afternoon  and 
then  moved  directly  towards  Iowa  City,  the  home 
of  the  marshal,  passing  beyond  the  city  fourteen 
miles  to  his  Quaker  friends  at  Springdale.   Here  he 
remained  about  two  weeks  until  he  had  completed 
arrangements  for  shipping  his  fugitives  by  rail  to 
Chicago.    In  the  meantime,  where  was  Marshal 
Werkman  of  Iowa  City?   Was  he  of  the  same  mind 
as  the  deputy  marshal  who  had  accompanied 
Colonel  Sumner?  Two  of  Brown's  men  had  visited 
the  city  to  make  arrangements  for  the  shipment. 
The  situation  was  obvious  enough  to  those  who 
would  see.    The  entire  incident  is  an  illuminating 
commentary  on  the  attitude  of  both  government 
and  people  towards  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.    In 
March  the  fugitives  were  safely  landed  in  Canada 
and  the  rest  of  the  horses  were  sold  in  Cleveland, 


|e  >i 


JOHN  BROWN  H5 

Ohio.    The  time  was  approaching  for  the  move  on 
Virgmia. 

Brown  now  expended  much  time  and  attention 
upon  a  constitution  for  the  provisional  government 
which  he  was  to  set  up.  In  January  and  February, 
1858,  Brown  had  labored  over  this  document  for 
several  weeks  at  the  home  of  Frederick  Douglass  at 
Rochester,  New  York.  A  copy  was  in  evidence  at 
the  conference  with  Sanborn  and  Gerrit  Smith  in 
February,  and  the  document  was  approved  at  a 
conference  held  in  Chatham,  Canada,  on  May  8, 
1858,  just  at  the  time  when  Forbes's  revelations 
caused  the  postponement  of  the  enterprise.  It  is 
an  elaborate  constitution  containing  forty-eight 
articles.  The  preamble  indicates  the  general 
purport: 

Whereas,  Slavery  throughout  its  entire  existence  in  the 
United  States  is  none  other  than  a  most  barbarous,  un- 
provoked, and  unjustifiable  war  of  one  portion  of  its 
citissens  upon  another  portion  the  only  conditions  of 
which  are  perpetual  imprisonment  and  hopeless  servi- 
tude or  absolute  extermination;  in  utter  disregard  and 
violation  of  those  eternal  and  self-evident  truths  set 
forth  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence:  Therefore,  we 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Oppressed 
People,  who,  by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  are 
declared  to  have  no  rights  which  the  White  Man 
is  bound   to  respect;  together  with  all  other  people 

15 


n 


^u'. 


•r;  ^ 


M0 


THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 


degraded  by  the  laws  thereof.  Do,  for  the  time  being 
ordain  and  establish  for  ourselves,  the  following  pro- 
visional CONSTITUTION  AND  oitDiNANCEs,  the  better  to 
protect  our  Persons,  Property,  Lives  and  Liberties  and 
to  govern  our  actions. 

Article  Forty -six  reads: 

The  foregoing  articles  shall  not  be  construed  so  as  in 
any  way  to  encourage  the  overthrow  of  any  State 
Government  or  of  the  general  government  of  the  United 
States;  and  look  to  no  dissolution  of  the  Union,  but 
simply  to  Amendment  and  Repeal.  And  our  flag  shall 
be  the  same  that  our  Fathers  fought  under  in  the 
Revolution. 

In  Article  Forty,  "profane  swearing,  filthy  con- 
versation, and  indecent  behavior"  are  forbidden. 
The  document  indicates  an  obvious  intention  to 
etiect  a  revolution  by  a  restrained  and  regulated 
use  of  force. 

Mobilization  of  forces  began  in  June,  1859. 
Cook,  one  of  the  original  party,  had  spent  the 
year  in  the  region  of  Harper's  Ferry.  In  July  the 
Kennedy  farm,  five  miles  from  Harper's  Ferry, 
was  leased.  The  Northern  immigrants  posed  as 
farmers,  stock-raisers,  and  dealers  in  cattle,  seek- 
ing a  milder  climate.  To  assist  in  the  disguise, 
Brown's  daughter  and  daughter-in-law,  nr^re  girls, 
joined  the  community.    Even  so  it  was  d  ■    .'ult  to 


JOHN  BROWN  MT 

allay  troublesome  curiosity  on  the  part  of  neighbors 
at  the  gathering  of  so  many  men  with  no  apparent 
occupation.  Suspicion  might  easily  have  been 
aroused  by  the  assembling  of  numerous  boxes  of 
arms  from  the  West  and  the  thousand  pikes  from 
Connecticut.  Late  in  August,  Floyd,  Secretary  of 
War,  received  an  anonymous  letter  emanating 
from  Springdale,  Iowa,  giving  information  which, 
if  acted  upon,  would  have  led  to  an  investigation 
and  stopped  the  enterprise. 

The  24th  of  October  was  the  day  appointed  for 
takiuti  possession  of  Harper's  Ferry,  but  fear  of 
exposure  led  to  a  change  of  plan  and  the  move  was 
begun  on  the  16th  of  October.  Six  of  the  party 
who  would  have  been  present  at  the  later  date  were 
absent.  The  march  from  Kennedy  farm  began 
about  eight  o'clock  Sunday  evening.  Before  mid- 
night the  bridges,  the  town,  and  the  arsenal  were 
in  the  hands  of  the  invaders  without  a  gun  having 
been  fired.  Before  noon  on  Monday  some  forty 
citizens  of  the  neighborhood  had  been  assembled 
as  prisoners  and  held,  it  was  explained,  as  hostages 
for  the  safety  of  members  of  the  party  who  might 
be  taken.  During  the  early  forenoon  Kagi  strongly 
urged  that  they  should  escape  into  the  mountains; 
but  Brown,  who  was  influenced,  as  he  said,  by  sym- 


^1 


S28 


THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 


ill:- 


pathy  fur  his  prisoners  and  their  distreMNed  families, 
refused  to  move  and  at  last  found  himself  sur- 
rounded by  opposing  forces.  Brown's  men,  having 
been  assigned  to  different  duties,  were  separated. 
Six  of  them  escaped;  others  were  killed  or  wounded 
or  taicen  prisoners.  Brown  himself  with  six  of  his 
men  and  a  few  of  his  prisoners  made  a  final  stand 
in  the  engine-house.  This  was  early  in  the  after- 
noon. All  avenues  of  escape  were  now  closed. 
Brown  made  two  efforts  to  communicate  with  his 
assailants  by  means  of  a  flag  of  truce,  sending  first 
Thompson,  one  of  his  men,  with  one  of  his  prison- 
ers, and  then  Stevens  and  Watson  Brown  with 
another  of  the  prisoners.  Thompson  was  received 
but  was  held  as  a  prisoner;  Stevens  and  Watson 
Brown  were  shot  down,  th<?  first  dangerously 
wounded  and  the  other  mortally  wounded.  Later 
in  the  afternoon  Brown  received  a  flag  of  truce  with 
a  demand  that  he  surrender.  He  stated  the  condi- 
tions under  which  he  would  restore  the  prisoners 
whom  he  held,  but  he  refused  the  unconditional 
surrender  which  was  demanded. 

About  midnight  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee  arrived 
from  Washington  with  a  company  of  marines.  He 
took  full  command,  set  a  guard  of  his  own  men 
around  the  engine-house  and  made  preparation  to 


,t     ^ 


in 


^ 


JOHN  BROWN  H» 

effect  u  forcibh'  entrance  at  .sunrise  on  Tuesday 
niorniof;  in  case  a  jH'art'iihlf  surrender  was  refused. 
Lee  first  ofTer««d  to  two  of  tlie  U)eal  conjpanie.s  the 
honor  of  storming  the  castle.  These,  however, 
declined  to  undertake  the  perilous  task,  and  the 
honor  fell  to  Lieutenant  Green  of  the  marine-,  who 
thereupon  selecte<l  two  s(|uads  of  twelve  men  each 
to  attempt  an  entrance  through  the  door.  To  Lee's 
aide,  Lieutenant  Stuart,  who  had  known  Brown  in 
Kansas,  was  committed  the  task  of  making  the 
formal  demand  for  surrender.  Brown  and  Stuart, 
who  recognized  each  other  instantly  upon  their 
meeting  at  the  door,  held  a  long  parley,  which  re- 
sulted, as  had  been  expected,  in  Brown's  refusal 
to  yield.  Stuart  then  gave  the  signal  which  had 
been  agreed  upon  to  Lieutenant  Green,  who  or- 
dered the  fir.t  squad  to  advance.  Failing  to  break 
down  the  door  with  sledge-hammers,  they  seized 
a  heavy  ladder  and  at  the  second  stroke  made  an 
opening  near  the  ground  large  enough  to  admit 
a  man.  Gfeen  instantly  entered,  rushed  to  the 
back  part  of  the  room,  and  climbed  upon  an  engine 
to  command  a  better  view.  Colonel  Lewis  Wash- 
ington, the  most  distingin'shed  of  the  prisoners, 
pointed  to  Brown,  saying,  "This  is  Osawatomie." 
Green  leaped  forward  and  by  thrust  or  stroke  bent 


i  ■ 


I    * 

f 


f 


«80        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

hJ!*  light  iiword  double  ugainnt  Brown's  body. 
Other  blowii  were  udminiiitered  and  his  victim  ffU 
senseleMM,  and  it  was  believed  that  the  leader  hs^l 
been  slain  in  action  according  to  his  wish. 

The  first  of  the  twelve  men  to  attempt  to  follow 
their  leader  was  instantly  kilknl  by  gunshot. 
Others  rushed  in  and  slew  two  of  Brown's  men  by 
the  use  of  the  bayonet.  To  save  the  prisoners  from 
harm,  Lee  had  given  careful  instruction  to  fire  no 
shot,  to  use  only  bayonets.  The  other  insurgents 
were  made  prisoners.  "The  whole  fight,"  Green 
reported,  "had  not  lasted  over  three  minutes." 

Of  all  the  prisoners  taken  and  held  as  hostages, 
not  one  was  killed  or  wounded.  They  were  made 
as  safe  as  the  conditions  permitted.  The  eleven 
prisoners  who  were  with  Brown  in  the  engine- 
house  were  profoundly  impressed  with  the  courage, 
the  bearing,  and  the  self-restraint  of  the  leader  and 
his  men.  Colonel  Washington  describes  Brown  as 
holding  a  carbine  in  one  hand,  with  one  dead  son 
by  his  side,  while  feeling  the  pulse  of  another  son, 
who  had  received  a  mortal  wound,  all  the  time 
watching  every  movement  for  the  defense  and 
forbidding  his  men  to  fire  upon  any  one  who  was 
unarmed.  The  testimony  is  uniform  that  Brown 
exercised  special  care  to  prevent  his  men  from 


1 


1 


JOHN  BROWN  «S1 

sho«>linK  uiianiu'd  n'tizt-ns,  ami  thin  rondiict  was 
un(l4»ul)t(><lly  iiiHiKntial  in  securing f^cni'rous  Irout- 
nu-nt  for  him  un«l  his  nun  uft«'r  tht-  surrrnih'r. 

For  six  wvvks  Hftorwurds.  until  his  cxtvution  on 
Ih'  'id  of  DfcnnlMT.  Jolm  Brown  renuiintfl  a  con- 
spicuous tiffurv.  lie  won  univcrsul  udniiration  for 
fouruK*'.  coohies.s,  and  deliberation,  and  for  his 
skill  in  parrying  all  utttiupts  to  iii<riminate  others. 
Probably  less  than  a  hundred  people  knew  before- 
hand any  tiling  about  th«'  call  rprise,  and  less  than  a 
dozen  of  thes*'  ri'iuh-red  aid  and  cncourag«'nient. 
It  was  emphatically  a  [mtm  mhI  exploit.  On  the 
part  of  both  leader  and  ft>llo\ve  s,  no  ot-casion  was 
omitted  to  <lrive  home  the  les  '>n  that  nieii  were 
willing  to  imperil  their  lives  for  the  of)prcs.s(d  with 
no  hope  or  desire  for  personal  gait  .  Brown  es- 
p#*oially  served  notice  upon  the  South  that  the  day 
of  final  reckoning  was  at  hand. 

It  is  natural  that  the  consequences  of  an  event  so 
spectacular  as  the  capture  of  Harper's  Ferry  should 
be  greatly  exaggerated.  Brown's  contribution  to 
Kansas  history  has  been  distorte<l  beyond  all 
recognition.  The  Harper's  Ferry  affair,  however, 
because  it  came  on  the  eve  of  the  final  election 
before  the  war,  undoubtedly  had  considerable  in- 
fluence.    It  sharpened  the  issue.     It  played  into 


(. 


n\ 


-,i. 


.1 


It.} 


Hh 


\  i  t 


iSi        THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE 

the  hunds  of  extremists  in  both  sections.  On  one 
side,  Brown  was  at  once  made  a  martyr  and  a  hero; 
on  the  other,  his  acts  were  accepted  as  a  demon- 
stration of  Northern  mah'gnity  and  hatred,  whose 
fitting  expression  was  seen  in  the  incitement  of 
slaves  to  massacre  their  masters. 

The  distinctive  contribution  of  John  Brown  to 
American  hiljtory  does  not  consist  in  the  things 
which  he  did  but  rather  in  that  which  he  has  been 
made  to  represent.  He  has  been  accepted  as  the 
personification    f  the  irrepressible  conflict. 

Of  all  the  men  of  his  generation  John  Brown  is 
best  fitted  to  exemplify  the  most  difficult  lesson 
which  history  teaches:  that  slavery  and  despotism 
are  themselves  forms  of  war,  that  the  shedding  of 
blood  is  likely  to  continue  so  long  as  the  rich,  the 
strong,  the  educated,  or  the  efficient,  strive  to  force 
their  will  upon  the  poor,  the  weak,  and  the  ignorant. 
Lincoln  uttered  a  final  word  on  the  subject  when 
he  said  that  no  man  is  good  enough  to  rule  over 
another  man ;  if  he  were  good  enough  he  would  not 
be  willing  to  do  it. 


1 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Among  the  many  political  histories  which  furnish  a 
background  for  the  study  of  the  anti-slavery  crusade, 
the  following  have  special  valae: 

J.  F.  Rhodes,  Hintory  of  the  United  States  from  the 
Compromise  of  1S60,  7  vols.  (1893-1906).  The  first  two 
volumes  cover  the  decade  to  1860.  This  is  the  l)est- 
balanced  account  of  the  period,  written  in  an  admirable 
judicial  temper.  H.  E.  von  Hoist,  Constitutional  and 
Political  History  of  the  United  States,  8  vols.  (1877- 
1892).  A  vast  mine  of  information  on  the  slavery 
controversy.  The  work  is  vitiated  by  an  almost  viru- 
lent antipathy  toward  the  South.  James  Schouler, 
History  of  the  United  States,  7  vols.  (1895-1901).  A 
sober,  reliable  narrative  of  events.  Henry  Wilson, 
History  of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in 
America,  3  vols.  (1872-1877).  The  fullest  account  of 
the  subject,  written  by  a  contemporary.  The  mate- 
rial was  thrown  together  by  an  overworked  slatesman 
and  lacks  proportion. 

Three  volumes  in  the  American  Nation  Series  aim  to 
combine  the  treatment  of  sjjecial  topics  of  commanding 
interest  with  general  political  history.  A.  B.  Hart's 
Slavery  and  Abolition  (1906)  gives  an  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  controvtfsy  and  carries  the  history  down 
to  1841.     G.  P.  Garrison's  Westward  Extension  (1906) 

iS9 


834 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


h 


If !  • .  f ' 

it  ■  , 


deals  especially  with  the  Mexicaa  War  and  its  results. 
T.  C.  Smith's  Parties  and  Slavery  (1906)  follows  the 
gradual  disruption  of  parses  under  the  pressure  of  the 
slavery  controvCTsy. 

From  the  mass  of  contemporary  controversial  litera- 
ture a  few  titles  ct  more  permanent  interest  may  W 
selected.  William  Goodell's  Slavery  and  Anti-Slavery 
(1852)  presents  the  anti-slaverj'  arguments.  A.  T. 
Bledsoe's  An  Kxaay  on  Liberty  and  Slavery  (1856)  and 
The  Pro-Slavery  Argument  (1852),  a  .series  of  essays  by 
various  writers,  undertake  thf  defense  of  slavery. 

Only  a  few  of  the  biographies  which  throw  light  on  the 
cvxxmAt  can  lie  mentioned.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  4 
vols.  (1885-1889)  is  the  story  of  the  editor  of  the  Libera- 
tor told  exhaustively  by  his  children.  Ix^.ss  voluminous 
but  equally  important  are  the  following:  W.  Birney, 
James  G.  Bimeu  and  His  Times  (1890);  G.  W.  Julian, 
Joshua  R.  Giddings  (1892);  Catherine  H.  Birney,  Sarah 
and  Angelina  Grimke  (1885);  John  T.  Morse,  John 
Quincy  Adams.     Those  uho  have  not  patience  to  read 

E.  L.  Pierce's  ponderous  Memtrir  and  Letters  of  Charles 
Sumner,  4  vols.  (1877-1898),  would  do  well  to  read  G.  H. 
Haynes's  Charles  Sumner  (1909). 

The  history  of  the  conflict  in  Kansas  is  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  Hves  of  two  rival  candidates  for  the 
honor  of  leadership  in  the  cause  of  freedom.  James  Red- 
path  in  his  Public  Life  of  Captain  John  Brown  (1860), 
Frank  B.  Sanl)orn  in  his  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Brown 
(11*85),  and  numerous  other  writers  give  to  Brown  the 
credit  of  leadership.     The  opposition  view  is  held  by 

F.  W.  Blackmar  in  his  Life  of  Charles  Robinson  (1902), 
and  by  ftobin.s<iii  himself  in  his  Kansas  Conflict  (2d  ed., 
1898).    The  best  non-partizan  biography  of  Brown  is 


^ 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  «U 

O.  G.  Villard's  John  Brown,  A  Biography  Fifty  Years 
After  (1910). 

The  Underground  Railroad  has  Ijeen  adequately 
treated  in  W.  H.  Siebert's  The  Underground  Railroad 
from  Slavery  to  Freedom  (1898),  but  Levi  Coffin's 
Reminiscences  (1876)  gives  an  earlier  autobiographical 
account  of  the  origin  and  management  t.f  an  important 
line,  while  Mrs.  Stowe's  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  throws  the 
glamour  of  romance  over  the  system. 

For  additional  bibliographical  information  the  reader 
b  referred  to  the  articles  on  Slavery,  Fugitive  Slave 
Laws,  Kansas,  IVilUain  Lloyd  Garrison,  John  Brown, 
James  Gillespie  Hirney,  and  Frederick  Douglass  in  The 
Encyclopwdia  Hriiannica  (11th  Edition). 


1 


^ 


INDEX 


Abolition  party,  DO 
Abolitionuts,     in     theory     and 
practice.   9;   state  iwlicy,   10; 
•ocieties  eMtablLshed.  II;  char- 
acter  of   socielies,    U-13;   of 
middle  section.  18-20;  against 
war,  5i;  division  amonK  '^ew 
England.  57;  extreme  attitude, 
«0;   of  South.   tJ8;   lexislation 
against.  71-7*.  HS;  hearing  in 
.^lassachiisetts.  72-74;  Metho- 
dist  Church    opposes    (183«), 
7i;   mail   controversy,   75-78; 
right  of  petition.  78-82;  mob 
violence    against,    8.'};    cause 
furthered    by  opposition.   H5; 
propaganda      suppressed      in 
South,  86;  theory  as  to  rights 
of  Congress.    101;   connection 
with    Underground    Railroad. 
114;      stigmatized      as     Jaw- 
breakers.   130;   aim.     preven- 
tion of  civil  war.  203;  see  aho 
Anti-slavery  societies.  Eman- 
cipation 
Adams,  J.  Q.,  on  right  of  peti- 
tion,   78-82;      warns    S.uth. 
85-86;    against    extension    of 
slavery,  8«-87;  successors.  99- 
100,   1«5 
Alabama     admitted     as     State 
(1819),    15;    forbids    importa- 
tion of  slave.-*,  35;  Birney  as 
educational     leader     in,  '  35;   i 
Williams  indicted  in,  70 
American     and     Foreign     Anti- 
Slavery  .'v»ciety,  57 
American  Anti-Slavery  Swiety, 


2.i7 


Himey's  connection  with,  Sft- 
37;    in    Philadelphia,    45-46; 
women    and,    45-46,    49,    57; 
recognizes    division    of    state 
and  federal  powers,  56 
American   ('olonization  Society, 
Birney  contributes  to,  34-35 
Anthony,  Susan  B.,  51-52 
"Anti-Nebraska  men.  '  149-50 
Anti-Slavery     Friends    Societv, 

121-22 
Anti-slavery  societies,  94;  tee 
alw  Abolitionists.  American 
and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  So 
ciety.  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  .\nti-Slavery  Friends 
.Society,  Colonization,  New 
England  Anti-Slavery  Soc-ietv, 
New  York  Anti-Slavery  sl)- 
ciety,  Pennsylvania  Abolition 
Society 
Arkansas    becomes    slave   State 

(1836),   17 
Atchison.  I).  R.,  146,  147.  148 

Baptist  Church,  division  in,  84 

"Barnburners."  92 

Barnes.  Jack,  slave  case,  115-16 

Beechcr,  H.  \V..  157-58 

"  Beecher's  Bibles, "  158 

Benton.  T.  H.,  H5.  U(i.  147 

Birney.  J.  G,.  born  (1792),  13; 
early  life.  33-34;  favors  grad- 
ual emancipation,  34-35;  re- 
moves to  Alabama.  34;  educa- 
tional leader.  35;  interviews 
Clay,  35,  90;  agent  of  coloni- 
zation society,  SO;  returns  to 


238 


INDEX 


\i 


Birney.  J.  G.— Continued 
Kentucky.  36;  frees  slaves,  36; 
and  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  36-37;  travels  and 
lectures,  37;  publishes  Philan- 
thropitt  in  Cinrinnati,  37; 
mobbed.  37;  moves  to  New 
York,  37;  quoted.  38;  and 
Garrison,  38-39;  compared 
with  Lundy.  39-40;  candidate 
for  Presidency,  39.  49.  88, 
89-90;  attitude  toward  women 
in  anti-slavery  work,  49;  typi- 
cal slavehoiding  abolitionist, 
54;  attitude  toward  extension 
of  slavery,  64;  persecution  of, 
68 

Rlair,  Connecticut  manufacturer, 
furnishes  pikes  to  John  Hrown. 
216 

Uracil  emancipates  slaves,  I 

Hreckinridfte,  J.  ('..  140 

Brooks,  Preston,  attacks  Sum- 
ner, 160,  176-78 

Brown.  John,  at  first  antagonist 
of  war.  Si;  reason  for  selecting 
Virginia  for  venture,  145;  Pot- 
tawatomie massacre,  161,410- 
411;  life,  404-06;  organizes 
"The  I'nited  States  League  of 
Gileadites."  407-08;  sons 
settle  in  Kansas.  408;  arrives 
in  Kansas  with  arms.  408-09; 
in  Wakarusa  War,  409;  made 
captain  of  militia.  409;  letters 
to  his  wife.  409-10;  part  in 
civil  war  in  Kansas,  414-13; 
object  in  Kansas,  414;  in- 
fluence, 414-15,  431;  raises 
money  for  redemption  of 
Kansas,  415;  connection  with 
Forbes,  410;  organizes  mili- 
tary school  at  rubor  (la), 
417;  returns  to  Kansas.  418; 
transfers  s(h<K)l  to  Springdale, 
418;  plans  attack  on  Virginia, 
418-40;  in  Kansas,  441;  "Shu- 
bal  Morgan,"  4*1;  raid  intit 
Missouri  (18^,,  441;  at  (inn- 


nell  (la.),  444-44;  constitution 
for  provisional  government. 
44.5-46;  at  Harper's  Ferry. 
44*^-34;  execution.  431;  bib- 
liography, 434-35 

Brown,  Watson,  son  of  John 
Brown,  448 

Buchanan,  James,  presidential 
candidate,  164;  elected,  103; 
appoints  Walker  Governor  of 
Kansas,  183;  approves  Le- 
compton  C'onstitution,  187; 
accused  of  collusion  in  Dre*! 
Scolt  decision,  196;  accepts 
Southern  views.  197;  adopts 
Calhoun's  theory,  198 

Buford,  ('olouel  Jefferson,  ex- 
pedition to  Kansas,  157,  159, 
160 

Butler,  A.  P.,  opinion  of  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  149;  and  Sumner. 
174-73,   175-76 

Calhoun,  J.  C..  declares  slavery 
a  good.  65;  and  abolition  mail. 
77.  78;  »ectionalisr>  of.  100  01 ; 
insists  on  bala:.:  ,-  between 
slave  and  free  States,  lO.'J; 
Benton  and,  145;  guards  prf>- 
slavery  intere-sts,  146;  tlie«)ry 
of  pro|)erty  right  in  Terri- 
tories, 147-48.  191 

Calhoun,  John,  president  of 
Lect)mpton  Convention,   185 

California,  discovery  of  gold  in, 
99;  Douglas  favors  admission 
as  free  State,  103;  slavery 
excluded  from,  104-05,  10*:; 
admitted  as  free  State  (1850), 
107 

Canada,  Lundy  visits,  .il;  as 
refuge  for  fugitive  slaves,  114 

Cass,  Lewis,  94,  105,  176 

Chase.  S.  P..  69 

China,  relations  established  with. 
98 

Clay,  Henry.  Birney  interviews, 
35.  90;  prpsidential  candidate, 
88;  defeat  of  1844.  89-90;  dies 


*v.  « 


I 


"^ 


INDEX 


mo 


riay.  Henry — Continued 
in  middle  of  century,  99-100; 
compromise,  107;  on  Fugitive 
SUve  Law.  110;  propones 
Rfadual  emancipation  for  Ken- 
lucky.  147 

Coffin,  Levi,  reputed  president  of 
Underground  Railroad,  114- 
120 

Colonization,  societies,  80;  Lundy 
and,  30;  Garrision  repudiates, 
31;  Birney  and.  34-3.5.  S« 
Compromise  of  1H30,  104,  148 
Confiress.  petition  presented  in 
17U0,  ll-W;  riRht  of  petition. 
78-8« 
Cook     one    of    John    Brown's 

party,  WO 
t'otton  industry,  effect  on  slav- 
ery, il-t'i 
Crandall,  IVudence,  70 
I'reoU,  The.  slave  case.  8* 
Cuba,  urfted  to  throw  i>ff  Spanish 
yoke,  61;   United  SUtes  pro- 
tests emancipation  in.  61 
Curtis,  Judjfe  B.  R.,  dissenting 
opinion   in    Dred   Scott   case, 
199 

Davis,  Jefferson,  guardian  of 
pro-slavery  interests,  146;  on 
popular  sovereifimty,  195-06; 
decides  on  secession,  liOH 

Davu,  John,  of  -Massachusetts, 
91 

Democratic  party,  denounces 
abolitionists  (1840),  88;  favors 
annexation  of  Texas  (1844),  88, 
89:  nominates  Cass  (1848), 
9<;  split  in.  9«,  103;  first  called 
Republican  party,  97;  fusion 
with  Whigs  in  .South,  105; 
supports  compromise  and  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  (185<).  Ill; 
reabsorbs  Free-soilcrs.  144; 
supports  Calhoun's  position 
on  slavery.  194 

Dew,  Thomas,  65 

Dickson.  John.  79 


Dillingham,  Richard.  1« 

District  of  Columbia.  Congress 
urged  to  prohibit  slavery  in, 
94-95;  abolition  of  slave-trade 
in,  lOH-09 

Douglas,  S.  \.,  Jackson's  mantle 
falls  on.  100;  an  expansionist, 
10«-03;  popular  sovereignty, 
148,  195;  Kansas- Nebraska 
hill,  149;  opposes  frer^state 
government  in  Kansas.  158; 
attitude  toward  Kansas  set- 
tlers. 174;  and  Sumner.  176; 
opposes  Lecompton  Constitu- 
tion. 187;  responsible  for  its 
defeat,  199;  rc<<lertic)n  to 
•Senate,  199-20«:  Lincoln- 
Douglas  debates.  !M0-0< 

Douglass,  Frederick,  48,  1«3. 
2«5 

Dow.  C.  M..  free-state  settler  In 
Kansas.  156 

Drefl  Scott  decision.  101,  191-94. 
19»-99 

Kmancipation  advocated  by 
Friends,  8.  11;  in  North.  18- 
19,  «0; '  horrors  of  San  Domin- 
go," 84;  (iarrison  advocates. 
31;  Birney  appro v(>s  gradual. 
34-35;  probable  outcome  of 
peaceable,  142;  Clay  prupoaea 
gradual,  147 

tilmigrant  .\id  Company,  150- 
151;  »et  also  New  Kngland 
Emigrant  Aid  Ajisociation 

Kverett,  Kdward.  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  71-72 

Faulkner,  of  Virginia,  64 

Fillmore,  Millard,  approves  com- 
promise measures,  107;  de- 
feated hy  Buchanan,  163 

Florida  to  be  slave  State.  17; 
wilds  as  refuge  for  fugitive 
slaves,   112 

Floyd,  J.  B..  Secretary  of  War.  re- 
ceives anonymous  letter  about 
John  Brown,  227 


240 


INDEX 


h 


'A 


ForbM,  Colonel  Hugh,  «16.  «17, 
tll9 

Franidin.  Benjamin.  11 

Free-soil  party,  principles  of  Gar- 
rison, 57-38;  Buffalo  conven- 
tion, 93;  becomes  Hepubiican 
party,  97;  denounces  Fugitive 
Slave  Act,  XtJ.  144 

Fremont,  J.  C.  defeated  by 
^  Buchanan,    lUS 

French  Revolution,  7-8 

Friends,  Society  <»f,  advocates 
enmncipation,  8,  11;  contribu- 
tion to  conception  of  equality, 
lt7-i<8;  garb  a  protest  against 
slavi'i.  ,  43;  women  of,  43;  as 
friends  of  fugitive  slaves,  113- 
1«;  division  in  Indiana,  MO- 

FuKJlive  Slave  Act,  100-10, 
ltfl-«2,  1«9,  ISO,  108-69,  171 

"Gag  resolution, "  80-81 

Garrison,  \V.  L.,  Lundy  meetx, 
31;  rejects  n)loni2ation,  31. 
53;  advocates  emancipation, 
31,  Si;  convicted  of  lib«>I,  31, 
4«;  indebtedness  to  Lundy,  33, 
54-55;  and  Birney,  .38-39;  a 
non-resistant,  6i,  30;  founds 
Liberator,  54;  Address  to  the 
Public,  55;  on  obligation  to 
remove  slavery,  50;  and  al)o- 
Jition  split,  50,  57;  burns  copy 
of  Constitution,  37;  and  rhe- 
torical abuse,  58;  denies  con- 
nection with  Turner  insurrec- 
tion, 39  (note);  mobbed  in 
Boston,  69;  reward  offere<i  for, 
70;  address  in  Massachusetts 
legislature.  7< 

Gayle,  John,  Governor  of  Ala- 
bama, 70 

Geary,  J.  W..  Governor  of  Kan- 
sas, 162,  «14;  conflict  with 
legislature.  103,  184-83;  re- 
signs, 164 

Genius  of  UnirrrsiU  Emancipa- 
tion, 30,  Sl-S« 


Georgia  finds  slavery  profitable. 
8-9;  prohibitory  slave  law  in, 
10  (note);  opposes  aboUtion 
petition,  li;  relation  to  anti- 
slavery  movement,  iO-tX;  re- 
ward for  (iarris<in.  70 

(ji<idings,  J.  R.,  H2-H3 

Gill,  (J.  B.,  follower  of  John 
Brown,  <M 

Goodell,  William,  Rlavery  and 
Anti-Slattry.  citetl,  \i  (note); 
speech  in  Massachusetts  legis- 
lature, 73 

Great  Britain  blameti  for  slave- 
trade,  6-7,  K3;  liberates  all 
slaves,  25 

(iretlcs,  slavery  among,  2-S,  3 

Greeley.  Horace,  quoted,  194 

Green,  Lieutenant,  captures  John 
Brown,  229.  230 

Grirake.  Angelina,  40-44;  Appeal 
to  the  Christian  Women  of  the 
South.  42,  73 

Grimk^.  Sarah,  40,  41.  43,  44 

(irinnell,  J.  H.,  account  of  John 
Brown,  222-24 

(irinnell  (la.),  John  Brown  at, 
222-24 

Gulf  Slates,  relation  to  anti- 
slavery   movement,   2(>-21 

Hale,  J.  P.,  219 

Humlet,  James,  slave  case,  109 

Harper's  Ferry,  John  Browa  at, 

220-32 
Hayti,  abolition  of  slavery  in, 

24-25;    Lundy    takes   negroes 

to,  30 
Helper,   H.    R.,    The  Impenuing 

Crisis,  137-42,  143 

Illinois  admitted  as  State  (1818), 
15;  Indcrground  Railroad  in 
northern,  126 

Indiana  admittol  as  State 
(IHIO),  14;  anti-slavery  work 
of  women  in,  40-47:  fitvoruhle 
to  fugitive  slav<'s.  120 


K 


^ 


INDEX 


241 


luwa.  fuicitive  sluvi^  in,  )M; 
John  Brown  in,  iil7-lH,  iHK 
iii-U 

Jackaon,  Andrew,  and  abolitiun 
mail.  7tt-77,  78;  gclcots  Dour- 
laa  to  aucreed  him,  100 

Jamaica,  KlavM  freed  in,  to 

Japan,  relations  established  with, 
98 

Jones,  Sheriff,  in  Kansas,  136, 
I5H-59,  I  (to 

Kagi,  J.  II.,  follower  of  John 
Brown,  tii,  UH,  W7 

Kansas,  and  slavery,  14i-4:i, 
130-64,  IHi-ttO;  em'i«ratiou  to, 
131;  Itee<ler  as  (Jovernor. 
13^-34;  elections  in,  13<;  pro- 
slavery  legislatures,  152-33, 
16.S;  Shannon  as  tJovernor, 
134.  1J«,  IflU,  164;  pro-ilavery 
co<le,  134-33;  To{>eka  Con- 
vention. 133;  Topeka  <'onsti- 
lution,  153,  17»  74;  Waka- 
riisa  War,  136-37,  809;  Bu- 
ff rd  cxpe<liti<»n,  157.  139,  16(t; 
■'  ik«cher'a  Bibles,"  138;  attack 
on  Lawrence,  138-<J0;  Sum- 
ner's speeches,  160.  17^-74. 
175-76.  178-79,  181;  attack 
on  Sumner,  100,  176-77;  John 
Brown  ttt  Pottawatomie.  161, 
«10-11:  sUte  of  war  in.  161 
16*.  t\<i~  13;  chan>;e  in  govern- 
ment, 16<;(ieary  as(iovernor, 
IM,  163-64,  184-83.  iH. 
I'irrc-c  upholds  pro-slavery 
party.  163-64:  l>.>compton 
Convention,  lS<-8«;  Walker 
as  tJ<»\ernor,  183-84,  18(5; 
Ituchnmin's  attitude  toward. 
183,  184,  185,  186,  1S7.  197  98; 
Lecompton  Constitution.  1S5 
188,  199;  slaves  in.  189-90; 
•'<•(•  alto  Brown,  John;  Ijiw- 
rence 

Kansas- Nebraska  bill,  149-50, 
197 

16 


Kendall,  .^mos.  Postmaster- 
General,  75-76 

Kentucky,  admitted  as  State 
(179«),  14;  .duve  territory,  13; 
pro-slavery  reaction  in,  .S.3,  36 

Kossuth,  Louis.  98 

Lane  Theological  .Seminary,  Asa 
Mahun  professor  in,  31;  aboli- 
tion movement,  74-73 

Ijiwrcn<-c  (Kan).  I'nderground 
Kailroad  at,  1<6:  founded, 
131;  Wakaruaa  War,  136- 
157.  tO0;  attack  on,  158-60 

Lecompton  Coastitulion  for  Kan- 
sas, 185  88.  199 

Lec-ompton  Convention,  18i{-86 

Lee,  Colonel  R.  K..  at  llar|>er'i 
Ferry.  iiH-HO 

l.ilieraior,  18,  54,  55,  36,  58-59, 
70 

Liljerty  (Mirty  organized,  39,  88; 
Biruey  as  candidate,  39,  88, 
89;  principles  of  Garrison,  57; 
platform  (1844).  95-96,  1«7; 
becomes  Free-soil  party,  97 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  Lincoln- 
Douglas  delMtes,  <00-(M; 
leader  of  Republican  party, 
HH 

lA)uisiana  admitted  aa  State 
(IHU),  14 

Louisiann  Purchase,  87 

L'Ouvcrtim-,  Tou.tsaint.  25 

l^jvejny.  Khjiih,  (19,  70 

Lundy,  Benjamin,  a  New  Jersey 
Quaker,  27;  early  life.  28-29; 
publishes  Geniui  of  Universal 
Emancipation,  80,  .Sl-3'^;  ,inli- 
siavery  work.  80-33.  64.  «9; 
jtiaiis  for  colonization,  .30-31; 
miH'ts  Garrison,  .SI;  founds 
Wilional  Inquirer,  3ii;  death 
(1839),  3<;  compareil  with 
Hirney,  39-40;  attitude  to- 
ward expansion.  62 

McCaleb,  W.  F.,  Texat  arid  the 
ilfxiean  H'ar,  cited,  86  (note) 


242 


INDKX 


!|! 


McDowell,  Jtmca,  Governor  of 

Virgink,  (jintlcfl,  «S-e4 
McDuttnf,  George.  Governor  of 

South  C'«ri)lina.  71 
McL«Hn,  Juilge  John,  tiiMentiug 

o(>inion  in  Dred  Hcutt  (ieciaion, 

im 

Mahan.  Aaa,  Prcsidpni  .,{  Obrr- 
liii.  51 

Maiiu  admittod  u  Stair  (IH<()  , 

16 
M»rcy,  W.  L..  (iovernor  of  Nrw 

York,  70;  quoted.  7< 
Martineau.  Harriet.  6« 
Muon,  J.  M..  176 
Mmou  and  Dixon 'a  Line.  14,  15, 

10 
MMiiarhuitett.'i,  dortrinr  of  equal- 

it>  in,  0;  abolitioniatx'  hearing 

in  it-Kiiilaturr.  74-74 
May,  llev.  S.  J  .  50,  53 
Methi<dii>t  Church  aKaiiixt  abo- 

liliouiaU  (1836;.   74;  tlivision 

in.  84 
Mexican  War,  86,  90 
Mexico,  slavery  in,  84,   Luudy 

visits,    31;    abolishes    slavery 

(IHiW).  61:  treaty  with  (1848). 
90-91 

Michigan  admitted  as  SUte 
(IH37),  17 

MillHon,  of  Virginia,  quoted,  143 

Mississippi  admitted  as  State 
(1817),  14 

Missouri  admitted  as  State, 
16;  slavery  question  in,  14ii, 
145-49,  188;  tries  to  ext.  iid 
slavery  to  Kansas.  151  rt  srq., 
18«.  188-89;  John  Brown's 
raid  into,  881 

Missouri  Compromise,  I«t,  17, 
103-0*.  147,  148,  149.  198,  199 

Mott.  Lu<-retia,  45-40,  50 

Mount  I'leasant  Philanlhmituil, 
30 

Nashnile  Daily  GoMette,  188 
Njiisau,  i.egr<iea  wt  free  at,  88 
Motional  Inquirer,  38 


Negroes.  sufTrage,  67;  education. 
8H,  70l   806;   restrictions,   08; 
see  'il.'it  Slavery 
Nelson.  Jud^c  Samuel.  199 
Sew  KnglaniJ.  attitude  toward 
slavery.  18;  blame<l  for  xliive. 
tra«le.  7,  83;  abolitionistx  ..(. 
58;    lee   alto    Massachusetts. 
Rhode  Island 
New  Kngland  Aid  So«iety,  819- 

880 
New  Kngland   Antioilav.  -y  So- 

<  i*'ty.  55 
"  •'■*!     Kngland    Emigrant     Aid 
AssixiatioD,      158;      it*     also 
Kmigmnt  Aid  Company 
Nt  w  Jersey,  slavery  in.  1»-1»; 

gradual  cmaiK-ipation  in.  80 
New  Mex)«t),  )erritorial  govern- 
ment.  104.  107;  remains  free, 
106 
New   York,   skvtry   in,    18-19; 

gradual  emancipation  in,  80 
New  York  Anti-Slaverv  SK-iety, 

69  • 

New  >'ork  Emancipator,  7 1 
North  Carolina  linds  slavery 
proBUble,  8-9;  protest  aguinst 
alavery  in,  19;  furnishes  men 
to  I'nion  army,  148 
Northwest  Territory,  slavery 
prohibited  in,  15 

Oberlin  College  founded  (1833t, 

50  j|;    co-eduration,  51;    lu-- 

groes  admitted.  51 ;  temperani'e 

at.  51 

Ohio    /I'hnitted    as    State.    14; 

nature  of  iH>pulation.  180 
Olmsted,  F.  L..  137.  141 
Omnibus  Kill.  107,  109 
Ordinance  of  1787.  15,  17 
Osborne,  a  prototype  of  Simon 
Legree,  116 

I'almerston,  Lord,  opinion  of 
UncU  Toms  Cabin,  134 

Paie,  Captain,  capture<l  by  John 
brown,  813 


i 
if 


1 


INDEX 


243 


Pesjv  movement.  4t,  as 
Pendleton  (Ind.).  diiturhanre  in. 

4H 
Pennavlvuiia.  freedmen  in.   lU; 

KTiuiual  emancipation  In,  HO 
Pennaylva.iia  Abolition  Society, 

Petition.    UlKht   of.   delwteil   in 

< 'on((reii.<<.  78- H< 
PhUanlhropi>t  published  by  Hir- 

ney,  .17 
Phillip».  Wendell.  addretM  (18«1). 

<5;    joins   anti-slavery    eauae, 

69-70 
Pien-e,     Franklin,     in     Kanaoa 

conlroverny,    13S-3I;   unholdx 

pro-slavery  party  in   KanMi. 

148.  10»-64:  attitude  toward 

Kan<|as  aettlers.  174;  acceptu 

Soutbera  view*.  197.  198 
Politira,  slavery  iuue  in.  84-»7 
Polk.  J.  K..  80 
Prenbyterian    Chun-h.     diviaion 

in,  84 
Pren*.  freedom  lA,  68-70 
Price.  JudKc  \V.  <'..  146 

Quakern,  *.r  Friendn.  Society  of 

Railroadjt.  conatniction  of,  09 
Ilee«ler.    A.    II..    Governor    of 
Kansaa,  \H;  elections  under. 
l3i*-53;  and   Pierce,   153-54; 
removed,  154;  approves  frce- 
•tatc  convention,   155;   Free- 
soil  deleftate  to  ConKreas,  155; 
accu'ied  of  treason.  15?^ 
Republiaui      party,      platform 
recojfnises    state    riKnt.s.    50, 
principles  of  (;arrison.  «7-5«; 
name    applied    to    party    of 
Jefferson,    97;    and    FuKitivc 
Slave  Law,  liW;  name  Kivcn  in 
1856.  150;  principl<>s  of  Jeffer- 
son. 193-94;  attitude  on  slav-  i 
ery,  1»4  I 

Rhode   Island,    bill   to  suppress   , 

aboliti<m  societies  in,  li,  74 
Rhodes,  J.  F.,  on  influence  of  i 


cotton  on  slavery,  M;  on 
Uncie  Tom't  Cabin,  136 

Richmond  Knquirer,  60 

KobinsoQ,  Dr.  Charles,  connect 
tion  with  Kmigrant  Ai.l  <  om- 
pany.  151;  (lovernor  of  Kan- 
sas under  Topeka  (onstitu- 
lion,  155;  aceuMd  of  treason. 
I4»;  opinion  of  fre«-state 
cause.  160;  advises  forcible 
resistance,  175;  address  at 
Lawrence.  18g-88;  GarrisoD 
denounces,  <11 

Romaoi,  slavery  amonit,  » 

Sanborn,  F.  B..  frienil  of  John 

Brown,  HIS,  819,  KM 
Santo     Domingo,     iniurrectinn 

fomented    by    negroes    from. 

60;  «e«  aUo  Ilayti 
Schouler,  James,  Hittory  of  the 

United  StaUt,  cited,  'H)  (not.) 
Seward.  W.  H.,  100,   ;9«.  90t, 

Shannon.  Wilson,  Governor  of 
Kansas.  15},  150.  ia«,  164 

Sherman,  John,  of  Ohio,  143 

Silliman,  IVofessor,  Benjamin. 
Sr..  subscribes  rifle  for  Kansas. 
157 

Simms,  W.  G.,  05-66 

Slavery,  Brasil  frees  slaves,  1; 
ancient  classical  controversy 
ow,  «-3;  issue  in  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  S-4; 
gradual  trend  against.  6; 
accepted  as  inheriUnce.  7; 
thought  to  be  temporary,  8; 
little  delwte  on  issue,  9-10; 
not  adopted  by  law,  10;  as  an 
economic  institution,  tl-^; 
effect  of  «)tton  industry  on. 
lil-W;  effect  oo  industries. 
03;  moral  justification  of. 
65-««.  10«.  190-97;  "gag 
resolution."  80-81;  question 
of  state  control.  94;  theory  of 
popular  sovereignty.  148; 
Sumner  opposes,  166-76,  17»- 


)  i' 


11:^ 


844 


INDEX 


181:  qUMtioo  in  IMt.  lAH; 
LecMnpton  (  oiutituti<m,  IH^ 
IW.  lM:«Ma/«oAk>uliti<inut*. 
Coloniutton,  Dml  Scott  ^ll^- 
cisioii.  Puiptiv«  Slave  Art. 
KuuM.  SUve-trade 

SUve-traile.  compUintx  Mminst 
Gratt  llriuin  fur  iotruducing. 
ft-7,  tS;  New  England  blamed 
for.  7.  13;  Southern  planter* 
delay  abolition  of,  0;  intentate, 
n-iS;  almlition  of  Afriran. 
tS;  Garriaon  and  Lundv 
oppose.  81;  Alabama  forbid* 
importation  of  ■lave*,  ii: 
federal  right  of  control.  IH-M; 
abolition  in  Diitrict  of  Colum- 
bia. lOH-09 

Smith.  CJerrit.  68.  ISO.  too,  *\H, 

ns 

Smith,  General  P-  F..  i-ommanii* 
in  KanMU.  lot 

South,  aboUtioniaU  of.  &*,  0H; 
pro-ilavery  reaction  io,  1  IS 

South  Carolina  finda  alaver^v 
profitable.  8-9;  opposes  anti- 
■laver^  petition.  It;  relation 
to  anti-tiaver^  movement.  tO- 
21;  iniurrection  in.  6(1;  laws 
to  auppreM  abolition  aocietie*. 
71 

"Spun.  Battle  of  the,"  Mt 

SUnton.  Eliaabeth  Cady.  M 

SUnton,  F.  P-.  acting  Governor 
ofKanaa*.  180 

Steama,  G.  L  .  <15.  *19.  tiO 

Steveni,  companion  of  John 
Brown.  «28 

Stone,  Lucy.  01 

Story.  Joseph.  165 

Stowe.  Harriet  Bcecher.  Unrh 
Tomt  Cabin.  47.  Wl-ST 

Stuart,  Lieutenant  J.  K.  H.. 
demands  Brown'*  surrender. 
2i9 

Sumner,  Charles,  speaks  against 
war,  ««:  attacke<l  l)y  Brooks. 
160,  17»-77;  early   life,  164; 


political  career.  16«;  eomparad 
with  Adams.  166;  as  coosUtit- 
tional  lawyer.  166-67;  opposes 
slavery.  106-78;  controversy 
with  Butler.  17»-7S.  175-76; 
CrimtAgainit  Knniai,  178-74, 
174-76. 178.  IHl;  injuries,  17»; 
Barharitm  o/  Slavery,  170-80, 
181;  apart^  man,  180;  leader 
of    Republican    party,    iOi; 

S'ven  information  about  John 
rown,     tl0;     bibliography, 
C84 
Sumner.  C^onel  I..  V  .  KtS 
Supreme  Court  in  |>oli«ir«.  IBl- 
VH 

Tabur    (la.).    John    Brown    at, 

«I7, 1118.  Hi 
Taney,  R.  B.,  Chief  Justice.  181. 

104-03.  194 
Taylor.  Zachary.  nominated  for 
Presidency.   M;   election.   03. 
104;   supporte<l    by  Southern 
Democrats,  104-06;  activities, 
106-07 
Telegraph,    influence    on    anti- 
slavery  movement.  09 
Temperance  becomes  i«sue.  41- 
48;    question    nearing    settle- 
ment, 43 
Tennessee    admitted    as    State 
(1706).    14;    slavery    in.    14; 
protest  against  slavery  in.  19 
Texai  as  slave  Slate.  17;  Lundy 
visits,  81;  annexation  of.  80. 
87;  Adams  supports  purthase 
of,  87;  Douglu4  prophesies  re- 
garding. 103;  Southern  leaders 
project  scheme   of  enlarging. 
106;  boundar>-  claims,  108 
Thayer.  Eli.  150 
Thompson,  one  of  John  Brown  s 

men.  828 
Thompson.  George,  quoted.  40- 

00 
Tillman.  B.  R..  of  South  <  :ar«.lina, 

14« 
Todd,  Francis,  31 


Toombs,  Robert,  U6.  177 
ToMka  Constitution.  144,  17.1 

174 
Topeka  Convention.  144 
Turner.  Nat,  Rebellion.  44,  48 

60-61 

UneU  Tom' I  Cabin  oi  it  is,  196 
L'ndefftround  Railroad,   Ilif-SO 

bibliography.  834 
I'nion  liutiiune  Society,  M 
United  States  League  of  (iilead- 

iles.  The,  8ir7-OK 
Utah,     territorial     government, 

104.  107 

Var.  Buren,  Martin,  08 

Vermont  admitted  as  State 
(1791).  14 

Villard.  O.  G.,  John  Brovn, 
quoted,  880  (note) 

Virginia  supports  anti-slavery 
petition  (1700).  18;  be<-onies 
intolerant,  17-18;  first  slaves 
ttri.  West  Indies.  84;  debates 
ir   l.cc'iture.  68-64 

Vot  a- it,  H.  E,  cited,  106 

Wakarusa  War,  146-47,  800 
Walker.  R.  J..  Governor  of  Kan- 
sas,   183-86;    urges   free-slate 
party  to  vote.  183-84;  pr<»tesfs 
I^compton  Constitution,  186 


■I 


) 


INDEX 


Ui 


177 

lAA.   17.1- 

tA 

1.  54.  S», 


IM,  ISA 
.    Uli-SO; 

.t9 

>f  (iilciuJ. 

rernment. 


la     SUte 

OTOVAf 

ti-iU  very 

be«)nie« 

it  ilmvea 

;  debateii 

,  IM 

,  209 
r  of  Kan- 
rree-state 
:  prolfnti 
ion.  186 


WMhinKtoo,     (leori^,     ftixitivr 

An\r*    uadrr,    11.1 
VV«iihinf((on,  Colonrl  Lewia.  tHi, 

im 

WebitcT,  Daniel.  B0-IOQ,  100, 
l«« 

Werkman.  United  Stalea  mar- 
shal at  Iowa  City,  iMH-M 

Weit.  anti-tlavery  agitation  in, 
4tt  4tt:  almlitioniiitt  of,  M 

Went  Iniiif*.  ilavery  in,  t4 

Wmt  Virinnia  admitted  aa  free 
.Slate.  UK 

WhJK  iHirty.  attitude  toward 
altolitiuiiiaU  (IH40),  HM;  on 
Tcxiii  iiMur  (IH44).  88;  noroi- 
nalc*  Taylor  (1848),  M;  pau- 
inK  of,  »8  111:  FrienilH  belong 
to,  Kl:  vote  of  1 8511.  144 

WilJiami.  R.  (J..  70 

Wilinot  Proviio,  00-01.  105 

Wition,  Henry,  of  Maaaachiuetti. 
«l»-<0 

Women,  part  in  anti-slavery 
cause,  40  et  itq.;  change  in 
position  of.  44-45;  rights 
movement.  40.  50-51;  tem- 
perance agitation.  5I-5S;  and 
the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society.  45-4(J.  40.  57 

Wright,  Prancea.  40 

Yancey.  W.  L..  HOi 


